Jack Frawley Gabrielle Russell Juanita Sherwood Editors

# Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector

Australian Perspectives, Policies and Practice

Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector

Jack Frawley • Gabrielle Russell • Juanita Sherwood Editors

## Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector

Australian Perspectives, Policies and Practice

Editors Jack Frawley National Centre for Cultural Competence The University of Sydney Sydney, NSW, Australia

Juanita Sherwood Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney Sydney, NSW, Australia

Gabrielle Russell National Centre for Cultural Competence The University of Sydney Sydney, NSW, Australia

#### ISBN 978-981-15-5361-5 ISBN 978-981-15-5362-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020. This book is an open access publication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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## Preface

While there exist publications on cultural competence across a variety of disciplines, there are very few that have a sharp focus on cultural competence and its intersections with the higher education sector. Developing cultural competence in higher education requires comprehensive institutional strategies that place universities as agents of change and transformation. This book brings together researchers, scholars, policy-makers, practitioners, and professionals who have an interest and/or experience in cultural competence policies and practice. The overarching theme throughout is cultural competence and its intersection with the higher education sector, from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives aligned with policies and programs.

Sydney, Australia Jack Frawley Gabrielle Russell Juanita Sherwood

Acknowledgements The editors acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Custodians of the lands where Australian universities now stand and the contribution they make to higher education. The editors wish to thank the many contributors to this book, including the authors and peer-reviewers and, especially, the staff of the National Centre for Cultural Competence and On Time Typing.

## Contents

#### Part I Introduction






## Editors and Contributors

#### About the Editors

Jack Frawley has a national and international profile as researcher, writer, and educator in the areas of intercultural studies, education, history, leadership studies, and the arts. He has worked extensively as a consultant for program evaluation, research, and education-related projects, in Australian Aboriginal communities as well as in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia.

Gabrielle Russell is the Acting Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. Her diverse experience has been gained working in non-government organisations, politics, business, church organisations, and higher education. She is particularly interested in how to develop cultural competence from a non-Indigenous perspective and, in particular, how to facilitate a deeper understanding of transformative ways to learn and work together. Gabrielle's teaching and research interests include race and racism, critical pedagogies, service learning, and cultural competence.

Juanita Sherwood is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales. She has over 25 years of experience in Indigenous health and education, community-based research methodologies, and decolonisation strategies that improve health and healing outcomes for Indigenous people. She is currently the Associate Dean (Indigenous) for the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney.

#### Contributors

Kris Acheson Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Peter Ampt School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Stephanie Barahona Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Debbie Bargallie Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, QLD, Australia

Gulnaz Beg Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Amani Bell Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Tina Bell School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Elisa Bone Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Susan Coulson Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Rebecca Cross School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Michael Davis National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Kerrie E. Doyle School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Roman Eymont Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Jack Frawley National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Bronwyn Fredericks The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Jaime Gongora School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Penny Haora National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Westmead, NSW, Australia

Jodie Hartman Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Donna Hartz Faculty of Health, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

Tom Hubble Engineering and Environmental Geology, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Catherine Hungerford School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia

Michael Johnston The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Natalie Leung International and Global Studies, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Michael A. McDonnell Early American History, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Janine Mohamed The Lowitja Institute, Carlton, VIC, Australia

Tran Nguyen National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Jiaru Ni Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Janine Oldfield Batchelor Institute, Batchelor, NT, Australia

Kathleen Pait James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Alessandra Pecci Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia

Tai Peseta Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Chris Pitt Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Clinical Academic Group, University of NSW, Kensington, Australia

Matthew Poll University Museums, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Rosanne Quinnell Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Liz Rix Gnibi College of Indigenous Australians, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia

Kim Robertson Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor—Indigenous Leadership, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

Darlene Rotumah Gnibi College of Indigenous Australians, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia

Gabrielle Russell National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Ehssan Sakhaee School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Kayla Sale Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Paul Saunders Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Craig N. Shealy James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Juanita Sherwood Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

James A. Smith National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, Bentley, Australia

Renee Staton James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Lee Sternberger James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Jakelyn Troy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Jonnell Uptin Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Dein Vindigni School of Health and Biomedical Science, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Felix Wang James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Kyar Wilkey Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Michele Willsher Batchelor Institute, Batchelor, NT, Australia

Lauren Zarb School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

## List of Figures



## List of Tables


## **Part I Introduction**

## **Chapter 1 Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector: A Journey in the Academy**

**Jack Frawley, Gabrielle Russell, and Juanita Sherwood**

#### **Introduction**

Although cultural competence in higher education is a worthwhile starting point for teaching, learning, research and leadership in the higher education sector, it has been argued that it is the journey and not the destination that is important (Clutton, 2017). What is cultural competence, and what does one encounter on a cultural competence journey? Pecci, Frawley, & Nguyen (in this volume) suggest that cultural competence discourse is a "cartography of sorts", and this is an apt metaphor. Most journeys require a map, and this book is, on one level, a map of a journey through higher education policies and programmes, where issues and themes emerge through a range of perspectives.

Finding the origin of cultural competence is not easy. It appears to have emerged in the 1970s in the health sector of the USA. The US version of cultural competence was born in child mental health and social services where African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander and First Nations peoples were treated poorly, and hence, equitable care was an issue (Cross et al. 1989). Along with this was the need to find models for effectively working with East Asian refugees who had different cultural models of understanding, spoke other languages and had complex social and healthcare needs.

Over subsequent decades, the practice and study of the cultural competence concept have extended into the areas of business, education and the social sciences. There seems to be general agreement in the literature that an agreed definition of cultural competence is elusive (Pecci et al., this volume). One report suggests that there are more than 300 interrelated constructs (Leung, Ang & Tan, 2014) and a plethora of instruments that claim to measure them. Nevertheless, the definition most

J. Frawley (B) · G. Russell

National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: jwfrawley@icloud.com

J. Sherwood

Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_1

widely cited in scholarship is provided by Cross et al. (1989, p. iv) who define cultural competence 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". Cross et al. (1989) emphasise that while identifying a commitment to improving cultural competence at the organisational level is an "ambitious journey", the process should not be seen as a hindrance to a system. In their view, a culturally competent system would value diversity; have the capacity for individuals and systems to be able to undertake cultural self-assessment; be conscious of the dynamics inherent when cultures interact; have institutionalised cultural knowledge; and have developed adaptations to diversity (Cross et al., p. v).

Critical engagement with the existing field of scholarship provides a valuable place from which to understand what is meant by "cultural competence" in both theoretical and practical terms. Frisby and O'Donohue (2018) recommend that cultural competence be viewed rationally and critically rather than dogmatically, unthinkingly and blindly. Likewise, Palmer and Carter (2014) suggest that cultural competence is an ongoing work and is a process not an end-state, with a lifelong commitment to self-critique and reflection. Clutton (2017) believes that the language of "cultural competence" is unhelpful because it focuses on culture as ethnicity and that it is time to shift language to "contextual sensitivity" for the heightened awareness of citizens, as individuals shaped by their histories, socialisation, life experiences and current institutional structures (Clutton, 2017, p. vii).

Cultural competence in an Indigenous Australian context is, in the most part, informed by the constructs of knowing, being and doing (Martin, 2003). "Knowing" is about "knowing and understanding history, culture, customs and beliefs"; "being" is about "awareness, authenticity and openness to examining one's own values and beliefs"; and "doing" is "culturally appropriate action and behaviour". To develop cultural capabilities requires "continuous development and practice in all three domains, a continuous process of learning" (CoA, 2015, p. 3).

Due to Indigenous people having been treated by most government systems as second-class citizens, there has been a lack of equitable service provision in the areas of health and education. This has had long-lasting implications and resulted in inequitable opportunities. Cultural competence is viewed as both a philosophical rights-based model and a pedagogical approach to improve the knowledge of providers in the areas of law, health, education, housing and welfare; and to reduce unconscious bias in order to enhance Indigenous people equitable access to the basic services all other Australians enjoy.

#### **Background**

In 2014, the University of Sydney established the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) to become a thought leader in cultural competence philosophy, praxis, process and methods. Since then, NCCC has contributed, through a variety of ways, to the dissemination of knowledges, pedagogies and skills that inform a whole-of-university approach to embedding cultural competence (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017). At a university system level, this has included an innovative professional leadership development programme for the university's academic and professional staff. The Culturally Competent Leadership Program develops and supports a network or community of practice of cultural competence champions across the University of Sydney. It has also included a suite of modules and workshop offerings to develop and apply the cultural competence concept. The work of the NCCC is a response to the University of Sydney's 2016–2020 strategic plan that emphasises the development of cultural competence for all staff and builds leadership quality in this area.

While there exist a number of cultural competence conferences with a focus on human rights, health and disabilities, until recently there have been no conferences on cultural competence or the intersections between cultural competence and the higher education sector. In 2018, the NCCC hosted a conference to address this gap: Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector: Dilemmas, Policies and Practice Conference 2018. In the consultation phase of the conference, letters were sent to 37 national and international organisations to determine their interest and this received an overwhelmingly positive response.

The hosting of the conference facilitated networking and sharing of information and created a national dialogue about the role of the higher education sector in cultural competency policy and practice. The conference provided a culturally safe opportunity to present research and share experiences and emerging evidence about cultural competence models and approaches. Furthermore, it generated and documented an evidence base about the most effective approaches for supporting cultural competence in the higher education sector and allowed the exploration of different and innovative approaches and strategies that incorporated Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) and practices into the development and implementation of cultural competence in the higher education sector. The chapters in this book are drawn from the presentations at this conference.

#### **Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector**

Universities Australia (UA), the peak body representing Australian universities, developed the Indigenous Cultural Competency project to be a key source of guidance and direction in informing the case for cultural competence within the Australian higher education sector. UA recommends making cultural competence in universities all encompassing, including in research practice, teaching and learning methodologies, and employment practices; and sees the role of universities as agents of change, and committed to a social justice agenda. UA (2011) defines cultural competence as:

Student and staff knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Australian cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of Indigenous protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in Indigenous contexts congruent to the expectations of Indigenous Australian peoples … [and] the ability to critically reflect on one's own culture and professional paradigms in order to understand its cultural limitations and effect positive change. (p. 3)

Developing cultural competence within the higher education sector requires leaders to facilitate and guide a whole-of-institution approach that "includes examining individual attitudes and practice in teaching as well as management, executive, policy and strategic commitment to revise and assess capacity to implement culturally competent teaching, learning, academic, research and employment spaces" (Taylor et al., 2014, p. 37). Cultural competence represents a critically important journey in higher education (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017) and aligns with UA's view that positions university institutions as agents of change, not only in improving higher education for Indigenous Australians within the universities, but also by making "a commitment to the capacity building of Indigenous communities" to reach more equitable outcomes for access and participation within these institutions (UA, 2011, p. 17). This requires leadership that is open, respectful and committed to a reflective cycle of critical thinking that explores context and content beyond a general appraisal, leading to critical reflective praxis.

This book, set in a higher education context, aims to create a national and international dialogue about the role of the higher education sector in cultural competence policy and practice, by sharing different perspectives and experiences, present research and emerging evidence about cultural competence models and approaches.

#### **Perspectives**

The concept of culture is a useful starting point; however, like cultural competence, it is a concept that resists definition. Given that the concept of culture cannot be easily grasped in that it is forever changing, it should also present challenges when being measured in unidimensional or face valid terms (see Wang et al., this volume). Nevertheless, exploring the concept of culture can provide the basis for considering the way culture is used in cultural competence. It is also useful to consider how the words "culture" and "cultures" are used in terms such as "workplace culture" and "organisational culture" and in regard to institutional racism; and that cross-cutting the concept of cultural competence are interrelated concepts such as IKs, racism and leadership.

Indigenous Knowledges in higher education should traverse the disciplines and extend beyond Indigenous perspectives to one in which the "discipline areas may themselves be challenged" (Bradley et al., 2008, p. 33). Parent (2014) states that IKs:

encompass the technological, social, economic, philosophical, spiritual, educational, legal and governmental elements of particular Indigenous cultures throughout the world. As Indigenous Knowledges are context-specific and interwoven within a given community's lived experience, they are dynamic and ever-changing to reflect environmental and social adaptations. Indigenous Knowledges are therefore not a singular body of knowledge but are

#### 1 Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector … 7

multi-dimensional and pluralistic in that they contain many layers of being, knowing, and modes of expression. (p. 59)

Indigenous Knowledges within the academy call for transformative practice not just within teaching and learning, but about what it means for the student experience (Martin, 2016). It also calls for the co-creation of an intercultural space in which cultures and knowledges can be shared and co-developed, seeking a balance of western knowledge systems with Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. The embedding of IKs in the academy does, however, come with a caution, in that this process remains a problematic, complicated, contested and contentious affair that requires more than a simple positioning of these knowledges in educational policy, curriculum and pedagogy (Acton et al., 2017; Nakata, 2007).

A commitment to embedding cultural competence reinforces the need to actively address the nationwide challenge of racism which can occur in both direct and indirect forms, at personal through to systems levels. As noted by Wang at al. (in this volume), regardless of personal characteristics, histories or commitments, all human beings are completely capable of racism. However, this does not negate the requirement for honest conversations about racism, which are necessary to recognise that racism is socially constructed and operates through discourse, policy and practices to recreate and legitimise "White domination" (Crenshaw, 1988; Pechenkina & Liu, 2018).

Leadership, like the concepts of culture and cultural competence, remains a difficult concept to succinctly define, although there is an intersection and alignment between leadership and cultural competence. Despite this difficulty, leadership in a culturally competent context suggests an underlying set of attributes, skills, behaviours and knowledge is required in order to transform higher education systems that aim for cultural change, equity, equality and social justice. A reflection on how the education system remains strongly aligned to a settler-colonial model that creates Indigenous deficit, to supplant Indigenous sovereignty (Johnston, this volume), suggests that forging change in claiming restoration and shifting the national unconscious bias remain a challenge.

#### **Policies**

In 2011, UA, the peak body of the university sector that represents all Australian universities and develops policy positions on higher education matters, published the *Guiding Principles for Developing Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (UA, 2011) which recommends that "all graduates of Australian universities should be culturally competent" (p. 7).

Universities Australia (2011) proposes incorporating IKs and perspectives into all university curricula to provide learners with the understanding, abilities and behaviours that underpin Indigenous cultural competence. UA acknowledges that this requires the involvement of Indigenous people at all levels of higher education governance and management, teaching, research, and community engagement and that Indigenous representation at governance and management levels is an important factor in Indigenous higher education policy and programme environments (UA, 2011).

Applied policies are apparent at institutional level through whole-of-university strategies, initiatives and programmes. Some systems within the higher education sector have embraced whole-of-university policies to enhance Indigenous education that brings together important fields of student facilities, jobs and governance, teaching and learning, research, human resources, community involvement, and global outreach.

A whole-of-university approach to cultural competence would ensure Indigenous involvement in university governance, management, teaching and learning, and research and a greater presence of Indigenous staff in the academy. It would also mean that universities establish stronger and more meaningful partnerships with Indigenous communities, especially those within their geographical regions. Such an approach means that systems thinking is realised and driven from the bottom-up. (Frawley, Larkin & Smith, 2017, p. 7)

#### **Programmes**

The *Guiding Principles for Developing Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (UA, 2011) sets forth a number of recommendations "to provide a practical guide for Australian universities to develop their programs and processes regarding Indigenous cultural competence theory and practice" (UA, 2011, p. 2). The chapters in this book present a number of programmes that put some of these recommendations into practice.

Universities Australia (2011) recommends that all graduates of Australian universities should be culturally competent. Several Australian universities have progressed this recommendation and have included a specific graduate quality that includes cultural competence (Frawley, 2017). At other levels, initiatives such as "students as partners" (Bell et al., in this volume) aim to bring cultural competence and students together as partners. UA (2011) states that the design and distribution of high-quality, culturally inclusive professional education depend on the training of academic employees in cultural competences, and some authors outline initiatives in this regard (see Doyle et. al.; and Fredericks et al., in this volume). Quinnell et. al. (in this volume) suggest that where campus environments are inclusive of Indigenous cultures and knowledges, learning and learning spaces can be extended to the entire university campus and the whole campus can be used for education programmes.

This is not a "one-size-fits-all" approach, nor is it something that can be addressed overnight or on the fly. In order to build a strong foundation for higher education staff and students to develop and grow their understanding of cultural competence, there needs to be whole-of-university support, and time and funding for this to occur.

#### **Conclusion**

While cultural competence is an evasive concept and difficult to define, it is the cultural competence journey, with all its detours through a range of perspectives and policies, that is important, not the destination nor the definition. In fact, it is debatable whether those engaged in a cultural competence journey will ever reach a final destination, given the continuous journey of learning that cultural competence represents. Nevertheless, there has been a whole-of-university approach to providing policies and programmes that support academic and professional staff and students to navigate their journey through a cultural competence landscape. Some of these policies address the professional development of staff, the establishment of a cultural competence graduate quality, and integrating IKs and insights into the university curricula, to provide students with the understanding, skills and behaviours underpinning Indigenous cultural competence.

The challenge of establishing cultural competence in the higher education sector has been addressed in a number of ways, perhaps reflecting the diversity of perspectives aligned with the concept. If the aim is for all Australian universities to develop their cultural competence through policies and programmes, then this journey needs to be encouraged and supported.

#### **References**


**Jack Frawley** has a national and international profile as researcher, writer, and educator in the areas of intercultural studies, education, history, leadership studies, and the arts. He has worked extensively as a consultant for program evaluation, research, and education-related projects, in Australian Aboriginal communities as well as in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia.

**Gabrielle Russell** is the Acting Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. Her diverse experience has been gained working in non-government organisations, politics, business, church organisations, and higher education. She is particularly interested in how to develop cultural competence from a non-Indigenous perspective and, in particular, how to facilitate a deeper understanding of transformative ways to learn and work together. Gabrielle's teaching and research interests include race and racism, critical pedagogies, service learning, and cultural competence.

**Juanita Sherwood** is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales. She has over 25 years of experience in Indigenous health and education, community-based research methodologies, and decolonisation strategies that improve health and healing outcomes for Indigenous people. She is currently the Associate Dean (Indigenous) for the Faculty of Medicine & Health at The University of Sydney.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Part II Perspectives**

This part provides a range of perspectives on the concept of cultural competence. The idea that "culture" is a dynamic, creative and transformative concept is explored by Michael Davis who suggests that this perspective can provide the basis for considering how "culture" is used in "cultural competence". Davis argues that it is essential to re-theorise the concept of culture as dynamic and creative when considering its role in the field of cultural competence. Gabrielle Russell suggests that essential to cultural competence development is critical self-reflective practice. To highlight this, Russell reflects on her own cultural competence journey by exploring four key aspects of her worldview which she identifies as social justice, knowing self, re-storying and action. Michael Johnston believes that the development and implementation of cultural competence in Australian higher education raise significant questions relating to the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty. Johnston affirms Indigenous sovereignty as being a central aspect to cultural competence in Australian higher education and argues that it remains neglected. Alessandra Pecci Jack Frawley and Tran Nguyenprovide a review of the literature that charts cultural competence theoretical concepts and discourse, as well as pedagogical trends and leadership initiatives in the higher education sector. The review reveals a corpus of national and international pedagogical praxis which they believe could guide and inform culturally competent leadership initiativesin higher education. Felix Wangand colleagues report on research that accessed a sample of data collected using the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI). The research examined global identity development in the context of internationalised educational experiences. Their research findings, they conclude, could inform best practices in culturally competent pedagogies and programs that seek to promote international, multicultural and transformational learning, growth and development.

## **Chapter 2 The "Culture" in Cultural Competence**

**Michael Davis**

#### **Introduction**

Cultural competence is a journey and a pathway towards becoming competent in working with, and between, diverse cultural situations and contexts. There is no single definition of cultural competence, since it is a continually evolving process, but there are some useful working definitions such as Cross et al. (1989). These authors use the term "culture" to denote "the integrated pattern of human behaviour that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group" (Cross et al., 1989, p. 3). But this is just one among a vast array of definitions in the long history of the concept of culture in the social sciences and humanities fields (see, e.g., Billington et al., 1991).

Like cultural competence, the term "culture" resists definition (White, 1959). It is, as one sociologist suggests, "a slippery, even a chaotic" concept (Smith, 2000, p. 4). Despite this resistance to definition, there has been, in recent decades, a "cultural turn" which has seen a resurgence of the idea of culture across several disciplines and subdisciplines in the humanities and social sciences area. This return of the idea of culture has also been instrumental in the fashioning of the discipline of "cultural studies" (see Hegeman, 2012).

The aim of this chapter is not to present a comprehensive discussion and analysis of the culture concept. Rather, the aim is quite specific: to explore the idea of "culture" as a dynamic, creative and transformative concept, and of how this view of the concept of culture can provide the basis for considering the way it is used in cultural competence.

© The Author(s) 2020

M. Davis (B)

National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia e-mail: m.davis@anu.edu.au

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_2

#### **What is Culture? From Essentialism to Dynamism and Process**

In early formulations, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the culture concept was closely associated with and employed in, the classification and formation of hierarchies, of peoples in a matrix of colonialist/ethnological discourses. In this historical sense, the notion of culture had racialised connotations and was employed as a marker to establish or reaffirm superiority or dominance of one culture over another, based on presumed racial or biological characteristics (Billington et al., 1991, pp. 82–84). It is in this context that the culture concept has been one of the cogs in the machinery of oppressive colonial regimes. In recent decades, however, and with the "cultural turn," there have been transformations in the use of the culture concept, as it is harnessed by groups and peoples to establish, reaffirm and celebrate their cultural identity and difference. This aspect as it relates to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is discussed below.

Despite a turn towards more pluralised usages, there has persisted an essentialised discourse on culture that reifies a people as having a fixed "culture". These essentialist discourses often find expression in references to a group of people, a nation or an ethnic or language group in formulations such as "*The* Nuer," "*The* Inuit" or "*The* Aborigines," implying that those peoples are a homogeneous entity, and obscuring, or denying, diversity within a cultural group. These also appear occasionally, in Australian public discourses, use of the possessive noun in paternalistic ways, in phrases such as "*Our* Aborigines," "*Our* Indigenous Australians," and the like. However, despite the persistence of these essentialising tropes, the historical trajectory of the concept of culture has seen major shifts from evolutionary, classificatory, hierarchical and totalising views, to views that allow for difference and diversity. As McGrane remarks, "our contemporary experience of 'culture' as the universal ground and horizon of difference marks a rupture with the nineteenth-century concept of culture" (McGrane, 1989, p. 113). He explains that "the emergence of the concept of "culture" has made possible the democratization of difference (perhaps, in one sense, "culture" *is* the radical democratization of difference)" (McGrane, 1989, p. 114). In his reference here to the nineteenth-century concept of culture, McGrane is pointing particularly to the work of E. B. Tylor, considered one of anthropology's founding "fathers". Tylor conceived of culture in his 1871 work Primitive Culture as a "complex whole" that includes "knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Eagleton, 2000, p. 34, citing Tylor, 1871). Tylor's now outmoded concept of culture has been the subject of extensive debate and discussion for a long time. One critique by Stocking draws attention to the flaws in Tylor's notion of culture in the context of present-day usages:

Tylor's actual usage of the term "culture" lacked a number of the features commonly associated with the modern anthropological concept: historicity, integration, behavioural determinism, relativity, and—most symptomatically—plurality. (Stocking, 1987, pp. 302–303)

The transformations in the idea of culture, from the totalising Tylorean formulations to the more dynamic and open-ended ones, are not without their tensions. A shift towards a more fluid and processual notion of culture has rattled age-old canons of thought that are founded on certainty, homogeneity and fixity. This is sometimes observed in current contexts of destabilising discourses on contested issues—such as identity, difference, migration, nationhood and citizenship—where culture has assumed a greater focus for anxiety (Grillo, 2003; Stolcke, 1995). In these scenarios, culture has become, or perhaps has re-emerged, as a fulcrum for often tense and sometimes divisive public debates and discussions around such notions as "multiculturalism", "ethnicity" and "belonging".

But this is not new; humans have always invoked the idea of culture, whether it is to assert national sentiments, proclaim and strengthen ethnic and Indigenous identities, appeal to ancient and enduring traditions, or establish markers of status or difference. Culture has continually been invented, reinvented, created or refashioned, in countercurrent to its persistence as a reified or essentialised entity. A question now is the idea of culture as "a system of belief grounded in a conception of human beings as *cultural* (and under certain conditions territorial and national) subjects, i.e. bearers of *a* culture, located within a boundaried world, which defines and differentiates them from others" (Grillo, 2003, p. 158, original emphasis). In today's increasingly fluid and mobile world, these fixities are becoming less relevant or appropriate. In this regard, Grillo identifies a problem with the notion that "a specific culture *defines a people*" (2003, p. 159, original emphasis). Against this essentialist view, he suggests, is one that sees "cultures and communities" as "constructed, dialectically from above and below, and in constant flux" (Grillo, 2003, p. 160). In a growing multicultural world, Grillo asserts, "the emphasis is on multiple identities or identifications whose form and content are continuously being negotiated" (2003, p. 160).

Another aspect of the changing discourses on the culture concept is related to the way it is constructed in historical, particularistic and situational settings. One writer cautions against what he refers to as a "culturalist" approach, a "reduction of social and historical questions to abstract questions of culture." As "culture" in this view becomes devoid of all historical and situational contexts, it can contribute to "legitimizing hegemonic relations of exploitation and oppression within societies" (Dirlik, 1987, p. 17). This notion of the role of the culture concept in oppressive colonial regimes is supported by looking to some of the word's etymological roots, which point to its associations with colonialism. As Eagleton points out, "its meaning as *inhabit* has evolved from the Latin *colonus* to the contemporary *colonialism*" (Eagleton, 2000, p. 2). Yet, again showing the slipperiness of the term, "culture" is also derived from Latin words associated with the idea of "cultivation", "caring", and "tending to"—notions that are more relevant to the kinds of "cultures of care" that are one of the central planks of cultural competence. In these latter contexts, in its more positive and benign usages, rather than culture being "used to justify Western hegemony over the non-West", if, in Dirlik's argument, culture is regarded as a "way of seeing", and as a "way of making the world", then this "offers the possibility of a truly liberating practice" (Dirlik, 1987, p. 49). The potential for culture as a transformative, "liberating practice" is a critical element for the path to cultural competence, in working cross-culturally with Indigenous peoples.

Anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote that culture:

denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men [*sic*] communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life. (1973, p. 89)

Geertz argues that if "man is an animal suspended in webs of meaning he himself has spun," then "I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning" (Geertz, 1973, p. 5). In this framework, to understand culture requires examining behaviour; as Geertz states, "behaviour must be attended to, and with some exactness, because it is through the flow of behaviour—or, more precisely, social action—that cultural forms find articulation" (1973, p. 17). In this view, then, culture is expressive and can be understood by looking at these expressions as they are played out in contexts of human interaction. This expressive quality of culture also suggests movement and flow; qualities that indicate that, as Dening asserts, "the essence of culture is process." As a process, culture is also, in this sense, a creative force, and "one moment is no more hybrid than the last, one response no less creative than that which was made before" (Dening, 1980, p. 39).

These processual and creative aspects of culture can be illustrated by considering, for example, the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have, over hundreds of thousands of years, drawn on the creative and innovative qualities of their cultures to adapt to vast climatic and environmental changes, and to establish and maintain successful livelihoods in very diverse environments (see Cane, 2013). Culture, in this dynamic, creative sense is, as various writers see it, a system of signs and symbols: a "signifying system" (Geertz, 1973; Jones, 2004, p. 130; Mitchell, 1995, p. 102; Williams, 1981). As one writer puts it, "culture is socially constructed, actively maintained by social actors and supple in its engagement with other 'spheres' of human activity" (Mitchell, 1995, p. 102). As a dynamic entity, culture is "symbolic, active, constantly subject to change and riven through with relations of power" (Mitchell, 1995, p. 103). These features of culture allow it to be constructed as a creative concept, which is particularly apt for Indigenous people.

#### **Culture and Indigenous People**

Since white settlement, Australia's Indigenous people have suffered discriminatory and harmful policies and laws that sought to assimilate them into the dominant European culture. They were denied the right to their own distinct cultures, traditions, languages and heritage. The denial of the essential characteristics that defined them as a distinct people has left its legacy of trauma and lack of wellbeing. The recognition of Indigenous people both as distinct, and as a diversity of cultures, is at the heart of their identity and survival.

A creative, innovative sense of the idea of culture is central to Indigenous peoples. Ideas of difference and plurality in defining culture are important in seeking to better understand and respect the cultures of Indigenous peoples by the wider community. However, recognition and respect for difference and diversity, both within and between cultures, needs to be balanced by an appreciation of the universal characteristics of all Indigenous cultures. But in searching for a vocabulary to describe and define these universal Indigenous cultural characteristics, there is also a risk of totalising Indigenous cultures, of reducing them to a homogeneous entity. These kinds of tensions can be illustrated by considering what are often thought to be some key aspects of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and worldviews that are markers of their distinct status as First Peoples. These include the Dreaming, that is often used to denote their unique cosmological system; their distinct and deep relationships with their lands, often understood as "Country" or "caring for Country" (e.g. Rose, 2004); their complex social and political systems, often characterised as being based predominantly on various collective forms of group organisation; and their unique capacity for sustainable and innovative ecological practices that have enabled them to nurture and manage diverse landforms and ecosystems over many generations (e.g. Gammage, 2011; Pascoe, 2014). These are often ascribed as comprising elements common to all Australian Indigenous people and are crucial to understanding their worldviews. Yet at the same time, as well as recognising and respecting the things that define all Indigenous peoples as distinct, it is also essential to recognise the great diversity in the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people express their cultures and live their societies. In thinking about shared cultural aspects of Indigenous peoples, we might also consider what they share in terms of political aspects. In this regard, shared histories of colonialism and dispossession often serve to create a sense of political unity among Indigenous peoples.

Culture is closely related to worldviews, as Ranzjin et al. (2009) explain that "like worldviews, culture is not just a mental representation. Cultural values, beliefs and norms are commonly expressed as outward behaviours of both the individuals belonging to the group as a whole" (Ranzjin et al., 2009, p. 20). There is also a close association between culture and knowledge in Indigenous worldviews, and it is important to acknowledge and understand the complex relationships between these. Such is the closeness between these—culture and knowledge—that one Indigenous academic uses the term knowledge to denote culture, because, as she explains, culture is "increasingly seen as an anthropological construct" (Müller, 2014, p. 14). But this narrative can change, as this chapter seeks to argue, if the concept of culture is deployed to denote the capacity for creativity, for innovation, and for cross-cultural sharing and communication. Culture, in this sense, is not only an abstract or an analytical construct, but a living force, as implied by Eagleton:

Culture is not only what we live by. It is also, in great measure, what we live for. Affection, relationship, memory, kinship, place, community, emotional fulfilment, intellectual enjoyment, a sense of ultimate meanings: these are closer to us than charters of human rights or trade treaties. (Eagleton, 2000, p. 131)

While this action-based and interactive use of the culture concept is critical in cultural competence, there is also much utility in harnessing a different kind of usage of the concept. Although it can be subject to criticisms of essentialism, the idea of peoples "having," or being defined as "a culture" can have important symbolic and political power. An example is in the notion of Australian Aboriginal people as having, or being, "the oldest living continuous culture," which is one of a number of formulations that have an important role in their identity formation. It is also a critical element in a transformative paradigm that can facilitate shifting from a deficit discourse—that is, a discourse that perpetuates negative imagery of Indigenous people—to a positive and affirmative narrative. This kind of shift calls for a nuanced and respectful view of Indigenous people that also appreciates the great diversity of their cultures and societies.

To appreciate what it is that makes Indigenous cultures unique necessitates an appreciation of their distinct cosmologies, worldviews and philosophies (see, e.g., Battiste & Henderson, 2000; Kovach, 2009; Nakata, 2007; Sherwood, 2010). But in this context, it is also important to avoid using top-down, imposed Eurocentric concepts to delineate Indigenous cultures and worldviews. Muecke (2004) draws attention to this potential problem, cautioning that "cosmology" is a non-Aboriginal term that "encapsulates a European enlightenment thrust to systematically explain cultures as totalities from a reflective distance, positioning the speaker as outside of, and thus able to see the (conceptual) whole" (Muecke, 2004, pp. 17–18). He argues that "cultures are not totalities; they are better perceived as partially acquired skills and attributes" (Muecke, 2004, p. 18). If, in this formulation, culture is something that develops through life in an accumulative way, then this is consistent with the view of culture as *process*, and as dynamic and creative, as articulated by Geertz (1973) and Dening (2004), among others.

#### **Rights to Culture**

Claiming a distinct identity, a cultural identity, to Indigenous peoples, is also seen as a right. As one writer puts it, "culture is not only important for wellbeing, it is the very essence of a person's being, permeating every aspect of their existence" (Ranzjin et al., 2009, p. 26). Indigenous people have struggled over a long time to have their rights to culture and cultural identity recognised internationally, and these are now enshrined by the United Nations (UN) in both universal and Indigenousspecific standards. Certainly, these conventions stand as significant achievements in global standards and present landmark references for thinking about culture. They are not without their deficiencies, however, and there is scope for more nuanced thinking and action, in both international and domestic law, to address gaps in how the conventions address race and culture in specific frames and contexts.

The United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966, and entered into force on 3 January 1976. This forms one of the planks of the international bill of rights and enshrines the rights to culture into international law, for all nations and peoples. Another crucial instrument is the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, 1965). This was adopted on 21 December 1965, and entered into force on 4 January 1969. This latter instrument is also of crucial importance in the constellation of rights and protections, and the issue of culture, relevant to cultural competence.

An international instrument that provides specifically for the cultural rights of Indigenous peoples is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, 2007), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. Key provisions in the UNDRIP are Articles 11.1 and 31.1. Article 11–1 provides the right for Indigenous people:

to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.

Article 31–1 provides Indigenous people with the right:

to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts.

The wording of these provisions in the UNDRIP shows that Indigenous cultures, in all the variety of their manifestations and expressions, are many and diverse. The text also highlights the intricate relationships between all the various elements of their cultures. Diversity of ways of life is an important aspect of Indigenous peoples' cultures and is especially important in the light of tendencies for dominant discourses to homogenise and essentialise these, thus denying the plurality of voices and viewpoints of Indigenous peoples. Article 15 of the UNDRIP recognises this plurality by stating that "Indigenous peoples have the right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories and aspirations which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public information" (UNDRIP, Art 15). These protections in international standards are crucial in informing the journey to cultural competence.

#### **Culture in Cultural Competence**

What does the "cultural" mean, in cultural competence? If we examine the relationship between "cultural" and "competence" it becomes evident that the concept of culture here must be understood as dynamic and expressive: as *process*. The dictionary defines "competent" as: "adequately qualified (*to do, for* a task); legally qualified; effective, adequate; (of action, etc.) appropriate, legitimate" (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1976, p. 206, italics in original). Therefore, taking the entire formulation of "cultural competence," we might define it as *being qualified for the task of culture*, as in having effective, appropriate and legitimate skills, experience, abilities and, perhaps, qualities in the matter of culture. Extending this further, we might infer that to be culturally competent means that one has legitimacy in doing, being in, expressing, understanding and/or interpreting culture—both one's own culture and that of others. This idea of "having competence" or "being competent" in one's own culture and different cultures also requires a view of culture as adaptive, creative, performative and expressive, as the above has shown. These qualities of culture are implied in the approach by Cross et al. (1989) in their model for a cultural competence of care, which emphasises "the cultural strengths inherent in all cultures and examines how the system of care can more effectively deal with cultural differences and related treatment issues" (Cross et al., 1989, p. iii). In this context, culture cannot be viewed as being frozen and fixed in time and place, but as dynamic, evolving and subject to continual transformation and innovation.

The idea of innovation in the concept of culture, and its symbolic and ideational dimensions, need to be balanced by attending to other material aspects, such as livelihoods and the nature of human beings. Critic Terry Eagleton takes up these points within a Marxian frame of interpretation. He states that "culture in the artistic and intellectual sense of the word may well involve innovation, whereas culture as a way of life is generally a question of habit" (Eagleton, 2018, p. 2). He points to the material conditions of our humanity which, in Eagleton's view, are critical for our understanding of culture. He explains that there is "something deeper seated than culture, namely the material conditions which make it both possible and necessary." Expanding on this, he claims that "it is because human beings are material animals of a peculiar kind that they give birth to cultures in the first place" (Eagleton, 2018, pp. 42–43).

The concept of culture in cultural competence is perhaps best understood by an appreciation of it as a balance between its materiality; that is, its basis in everyday living and being, and its ideational aspects.

A perspective on culture as process-oriented also forms an important basis for its use in cultural competence, both in discussions and reflections on the subject, and in its applications as a methodology and practice. It is applicable not only to individuals and groups but also to organisations and institutions, which can be said to have a particular "culture". One of the critical challenges for achieving cultural competence is to effect changes in organisational and institutional cultures and to bring about a shift away from entrenched racialised behaviours, attitudes and values based on preconceived prejudices or discriminatory ideas. This requires being attentive to the particularities of language, discourse, and technical lexicon in every academic discipline, and also to the structural aspects of organisations and institutions. To bring about transformative changes in negative, discriminatory and derogative behaviours and attitudes in institutional, structural and discursive settings necessitates mobilising a creative and dynamic sense of the culture concept.

Engaging with the idea of culture as dynamic, creative and innovative, and in terms of the ways in which it is expressed in contexts and situations of human interaction, provides a focus for exploring its roles in cultural competence. Understanding this idea of culture in cultural competence might be facilitated by considering what anthropologist Michael Carrithers has termed a "mutualist" view (Carrithers, 1992, p. 11). In a mutualism framework, the starting premise is that humans are social beings. As Carrithers puts it, "learning, living together, and changing the social world are done between people," and therefore "to understand how we do any one of these things opens an understanding of the others" (Carrithers, 1992, pp. 10–11). This "mutualist" view, Carrithers argues, considers people as "inextricably involved with each other in face-to-face relationships," and in this way, "the works of humans" are "always achieved jointly" (1992, p. 11). This proposes an alternative to the notion, sometimes argued from within the discipline of psychology, that humans are essentially individual, asocial beings; and instead advances a thesis of human sociality and interactivity as the driving forces for behaviour and society (Fiske, 1992; Carrithers, 1992). This idea of sociality, in turn, allows more potential for considering culture as a space for creative and innovative forms of intercultural engagement—aspects that, as pointed to earlier, are crucial in the journey to cultural competence. That is, cultural competence requires consideration of*relationships* between self and others; between one's own culture and the diversity of cultures of, and between, others. Viewing culture in this way, in terms of dynamic and innovative processes of interaction between and among people, can also facilitate the development of cultural competence as a transformative paradigm. By inculcating culturally competent values and philosophies through interpersonal relations, this paradigm can have the capacity to effect changes to unequal power relations founded upon racialised, unjust, prejudicial attitudes and behaviours, to bring about social, cultural and political changes at individual, societal and organisational/institutional levels.

In Cross et al.'s (1989) schema for cultural competence, which is one among many useful working models, a processual approach is proposed, which comprises several elements, one of which is to develop an awareness and understanding of, and work with, the "dynamics of cultural interaction." They propose as one of the guiding principles for cultural competence that "inherent in cross-cultural interactions are dynamics that must be acknowledged, adjusted to, and accepted" (Cross et al., 1989, p. 52). Here the expression "cross-cultural" implies interactivity and sociality, and the aim is to ensure that people, institutions and agencies work effectively in crosscultural situations. It is about conversation and negotiation, as implied in Eagleton's comment that "on another view, culture is the implicit knowledge of the world by which people negotiate appropriate ways of acting in specific contexts" (Eagleton, 2000, pp. 34–35). In this sense, the setting in which effective cultural competency is to be developed is the space in which there is an engagement or dialogue between cultures.

Engaging with the idea of culture in its creative and dynamic, processual dimensions wrenches the concept from its roots in totalising and essentialising discourses. By thus liberating the idea of culture as a fixed, immutable concept, it becomes amenable to articulation as a creative, malleable entity, and as a space for dialogue. This idea of movement in the concept of culture finds support in the work of Bhabha (1996), who examines culture in terms of ruptures, dislocations and movements. He argues that "critical practices that sought to detotalise social reality by demonstrating the micrologies of power, the diverse enunciative sites of discourse, the slippage and sliding of signifiers, are suddenly disarmed" (Bhabha, 1996, p. 53). It is in this sense, Bhabha suggests, that an understanding of "culture-as-difference" will enable us to grasp the articulation of culture's "borderline, unhomely space and time" (Bhabha, 1996, p. 55); allowing, in this way, for culture to become not a fixed entity with unfortunate historical associations with racialised hierarchies and classifications, but instead, a concept that is malleable and flexible, as readily applicable to the margins, borders and displacements of human activity as it is to more stable formations.

#### **Cultural Diversity and Cultural Competence**

Central to achieving cultural competence is recognition and respect for cultural diversity. While this is generally accepted as the norm, in one different interpretation, cultural diversity is considered as a challenge to cultural competence. This interpretation, which is based on a study of mental health systems, examines ways in which cultural competence can be employed "to address the challenge of cultural diversity in mental health services" (Kirmayer, 2012, p. 149). Here, cultural diversity, rather than being seen as *enriching* the mental health sector, is the challenge that cultural competence seeks to address, as Kirmayer explains:

Cultural diversity poses challenges to mental health services for many reasons. Culture influences the experience, expression, course and outcome of mental health problems, helpseeking and the response to health promotion, prevention or treatment interventions. The clinical encounter is shaped by differences between patient and clinician in social position and power, which are associated with differences in cultural knowledge and identity, language, religion and other aspects of cultural identity. Specific ethnocultural or racialized groups may suffer health disparities and social disadvantage as a result of the meanings and material consequences of their socially constructed identities. In some instances, cultural processes may create or constitute unique social and psychological problems or predicaments that deserve clinical attention. In culturally diverse societies, the dominant culture, which is expressed through social institutions, including the health care system, regulates what sorts of problems are recognized and what kinds of social or cultural differences are viewed as worthy of attention. (Kirmayer, 2012, p. 149)

Culture, in this view, is manifested in terms of difference, or cultural difference, and poses challenges to disciplines, professions, practices, institutions and organisations. Cultural difference here, in culturally diverse societies, is thought to create unequal power relations, wherein the dominant culture regulates and determines the issues and problems to be solved, and this results in disparities in access to services and care (Kirmayer, 2012).

In an alternative perspective, cultural diversity is the expression of adaptation and creativity in culture—and it is this diversity that enables societies, or peoples, to adapt, innovate, and to survive major, often catastrophic, events and processes. Recognition and respect by others of cultural difference and diversity are key aspects of a peoples' collective identity, and it is also important in relating positively to other cultural groups. This ability to relate to ones' own, and to others' cultures is vital for well-being, as observed by Ranzjin et al. (2009), who write that "increasingly, it is becoming recognised that the best outcomes, in both a psychological and behavioural sense, are the result of having fully developed identities relating to *both* cultures" (Ranzjin et al., 2009, p. 26, italics in original).

#### **Culture and Communication**

As well as recognising cultural diversity, another essential component in the path to cultural competence is effective transcultural communication. The specific ways in which individuals communicate with each other are determined by a complex combination of cultural, social, politico-economic, behavioural and psychological factors. They can be determined by socio-economic class, geographical location, peer group influence, or family upbringing, as much as by the individual's language and culture, among many factors. Communicative behaviour is also determined by the particularities of situation and context; an individual who is voluble and highly articulate in the family home or among friends in her or his own country, might be reserved, restrained, formal and introverted when in foreign places or in job interviews, for example. In this sense, differences in communication styles and strategies are likely as much within a particular culture, as between different cultures. Notwithstanding this complexity and diversity of communication behaviours, some researchers argue that there can be discerned some general relationships between a specific culture and particular communication style. Ranzjin et al. claim, for example, that cultural groups such as Indigenous people, who are what these authors describe as "collectivist" cultures, have a different way of communicating to people in western cultures. They state, "behavioural differences between individualism and collectivism are associated with important differences in communication styles." Elaborating on this, they claim:

Western people tend to be very direct in their communication style, getting straight to the point and expressing the main thing on their mind. In contrast, many people from collectivist cultures, such as Indigenous Australians, tend to get to the topic indirectly, preferring to establish a relationship with the other person before discussing the topic that the Western person regards as the main point of the conversation. …. For Indigenous people, trust needs to be established in the relationship first. (Ranzjin et al., 2009, p. 24)

I would argue that this binary classification of cultures as "collectivist"/Indigenous or "individualist"/western, and the positing of a linear relationship between cultural type and communicative behaviour, is overdetermined and obscures the expressive, processual and creative dimensions of culture. That is, thinking about culture necessitates a nuanced approach, and it is useful to consider the idea of "complicating" it. Rather than presenting an understanding of culture in terms of its relationships to behavioural types, it is more productive to think of it as multidimensional: as something akin to "constellations of practices" (see, e.g., Adamson & Davis, 2017).

Nonetheless, in the view of some writers (Ranzjin et al., 2009), Indigenous people are considered as being generally "collectivist in their orientation, especially in the area of kin relationships and in the social roles and responsibilities that follow from those relationships" (Ranzjin et al., 2009, p. 22). Ranzjin et al. suggest that "understanding the collectivist aspects of Indigenous cultures is crucial for effective transcultural interaction" (Ranzjin et al., 2009, p. 22). Whether collectivist or individualist in orientation, communicative transactions between and among different cultures can be enriched by the formation of a safe and positive space in which there can be exchange, reciprocity and mutual respect.

#### **Cross-Cultural Engagement in a Shared "Third Space"**

The co-creation of culture and knowledge is part of the journey to cultural competence, with people working effectively across and between cultures. This co-creation of culture and knowledge can only occur by forming a safe space in which the different cultures and knowledge can be shared, and co-developed. This is facilitated by considering cultures as process, rather than as "end-states", as Casrnir (1999, p. 91) explains:

The consideration of cultures as end states, rather than dynamic, changing, developing processes (even while admitting that change is possible), has in the past frequently led to both theoretical and research models, which are not adequate to the task of dealing with human interactions as process.

There are many ways in which to theorise a safe, mutually beneficial space for the co-creation of cultures and knowledge. One writer proposes the notion of a "third-culture," described as "the construction of a mutually beneficial interactive environment in which individuals from two different cultures can function in a way beneficial to all involved, represents my attempt to evolve a communication-centered paradigm" (Casrnir, 1999, p. 92). Here, communication is "that which happens, symbolically, between human beings as they do things together—in concert if you will" (Casrnir, 1999, p. 94). An engaged, interactive communication process, in which humans "build identities, societies, cultures or institutions for their continued existence and growth in a common socio/cultural environment" is that which helps fashion the process that Casrnir refers to as "third-culture building," which is a "concerted process between human beings with different backgrounds, experiences and interpretative or value systems" (Casrnir, 1999, p. 94). This idea is also consistent with the "mutualism" of Carrithers and others, and with a Geertzian view of culture as a symbol, and meaning-making, which allows for a focus on an event, interaction, and behaviours-in-context, in understanding intercultural and transcultural communication.

It is in these interactive, culture-in-context dimensions of culture that the concept finds most usefulness in cultural competence. The performativity of culture is critical here, as highlighted by education theorist Cary (2004), for example, who writes that she was "drawn into issues of cultural performance within and against hegemonic structures" (Cary, 2004, p. 75). She engages with a number of theorists such as Bhabha (1994) and Pratt (1992) to consider "the socially interactive performative nature of culture as a place from which to disrupt the colonising mentality of Western knowledge" (Cary, 2004, p. 76). As Cary (2004, p. 75) states:

A number of theorists have discussed the ways in which culture is socio-historically constructed and performed through social interactions often involving experiences of domination and subordination within the enlightenment project of colonization and imperialist territorialisation.

Cary (2004) also usefully refers to the notion of "contact zones" as formulated in Mary Louise Pratt's discussion on the interactivity of culture. In her work on colonial engagement, Pratt employs "contact zone" to "invoke the spatial and historical copresence of subjects previously separated by geographic and historical disjunctures, and whose trajectories now intersect" (Pratt, 1992, p. 7). She uses "contact" in a dynamic sense, to "foreground the interactive, improvisational dimensions of colonial encounters so easily ignored or suppressed by diffusionist accounts of conquest and domination" (Pratt, 1992, p. 7). Pratt's model of colonial encounter between coloniser and colonised seeks to emphasise "co-presence, interaction, interlocking understandings and practices, often within radically asymmetrical relations of power" (Pratt, 1992, p. 7). These interactive, creative and mutually engaged forms of engagement may be crucial in achieving cultural competence. Pratt's model of inter-cultural meeting points as 'contact zones' certainly has some useful analytical resonance in discussions around cultural competence, and for blurring coloniser/colonised dualisms. But it cannot entirely serve as a theoretical basis for further developing my argument about the processual view of culture, without considering, for example, the important role of ethics in shared spaces.

#### **Conclusion**

Re-theorising the notion of culture as dynamic and creative is essential for considering its role in cultural competence. In the journey to cultural competence, meetings, encounters and interactions between and among peoples and cultures from different backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures are seen as akin to conversations, in which there is a constant shifting and fluidity, creating a space for new knowledge and culture formations built around trust, reciprocity, recognition and respect.

#### **References**


**Michael Davis** is an independent scholar, historian, and policy specialist with extensive experience in writing and publishing in Indigenous history, Indigenous Knowledges, and related topics. He has published widely; his most recent book, co-edited with Joni Adamson, is *Humanities for the Environment: Integrating Knowledge, Forging New Constellations of Practice* (Routledge, 2017).

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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## **Chapter 3 Reflecting on a Way of Being: Anchor Principles of Cultural Competence**

**Gabrielle Russell**

#### **Introduction**

A critical self-reflective practice is essential to cultural competence development. Importantly, critical self-reflection must facilitate intimate knowledge about who you are and how you are positioned in the world, and the consequences of that positioning. Within institutional settings, each of us, as employees, is inevitably bounded by the policies, structures and values of the institution. However, our individual identities, socialisation and worldviews will inform how we interpret those institutional boundaries, and how we embody and perform our personal values and boundaries. Cultural competence is not just a skill to be learned; it is a way of being. Sara Ahmed, (2017) talks about feminism as "homework": the work we do at home as well as at work. Ahmed contends that while we might retreat to theory and locate our work there, in fact "we have to bring feminist theory home because feminist theory has been too quickly understood as something we do when we are away from home (as if feminist theory is what you learn when you go to school)" (Ahmed, 2017, p. 8). Ahmed's point resonates strongly with the work of cultural competence. As much as we might engage with theory to deepen our understanding and develop our skills, an authentic cultural competence is not something that can be turned on at work or in specific situations. It is the work we do at home. It is how we live our lives; it is a way of being.

Cultural competence is commonly seen as a cumulative, non-sequential journey or continuum of learning (Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989; Perso, 2012; Ranzjin, McConnochie, & Nolan, 2009; UA, 2011; Wells, 2000). Conceptualising cultural competence as a way of being highlights the process which I experience as a process of unknowing and knowing, of deconstructing and reconstructing. It is a journey inward to self as well as outward to community. It is the skill of untangling

G. Russell (B)

National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: Gabrielle.Russell@sydney.edu.au

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_3

who you are and how you hold yourself in engagement and dialogue with difference and diversity. It requires honesty as well as deep and critical thinking, but it also requires experiences. This is the "homework" we have to do; we can approach cultural competence as theory—or we can dive in, live it and experience it.

At its essence, cultural competence is about relationships, trust and dialogue: dialogue with yourself and with others. As we get to know and understand ourselves better, we are better able to know and understand others. Like any relationships, sometimes we are ready for the conversation and other times we choose to avoid the prickly parts; or we don't yet have the language or experience to understand them. Cultural competence work is the work of untangling, unpicking and revealing layers as we move through life. We move forward, then circle back to revisit and gain more understanding, more knowledge and more practice, enabling us to engage at ever-deepening levels.

This chapter aims to set out my way of being as an educator in cultural competence. When I think about my own cultural competence journey, I recognise four key aspects of my worldview which anchor my way of being: social justice, knowing self, restorying and action.

The context in which I am doing this reflection is as an English-Australian White woman who works in the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC), at the University of Sydney, where we lead thinking and education about cultural competence. The work of the NCCC is particularly informed and inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and contexts. Part of my role is to develop educational resources for staff and students and conduct research on various aspects of cultural competence.

#### **The Cultural Competence Imperative**

The NCCC was established with an initial primary focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competence. This is in keeping with a move, in very recent times, among Australian universities to achieve greater inclusion of cultural competence in the higher education sector, specifically to address disparities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Universities Australia (UA) states that cultural competence is:

The ability to critically reflect on one's own culture and professional paradigms in order to understand its cultural limitations and effect positive change. (UA, 2011, p. 3)

The impact of cultural incompetence on peoples' lives is real and harmful, particularly for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For example, 97% of Aboriginal people regularly experience racism (Ferdinand, Paradies, & Kelaher, 2013). Aboriginal men can expect to live 10.6 years less than other Australian men; Aboriginal women can expect to live 9.5 years less than other Australian women (ABS, 2013); and 28% of the prison population identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, even though they represent less than 3% of the total Australian population (ABS, 2018). For young people, the incarceration rate is even higher with 55% of youths in juvenile detention identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander—a rate 27 times higher than the rate of detention of non-Indigenous youths (AIHW, 2016). In the Northern Territory, 100% of youths in detention are Aboriginal (Allam, 2019). These statistics are selected from many which reinforce the necessity of developing good cultural competence.

Often, though, these statistics are used to justify deficit dialogue and problematise Aboriginal people, rather than being used to point to ongoing issues of racism, colonialism, decolonising and oppression, and knowledge about how dominant cultures maintain power (Downing & Kowal, 2011, p. 5). Meaningful and sustainable change will only be created when these underlying narratives and practices are addressed. It is through this lens that I approach cultural competence.

#### **Anchor Principles of a Culturally Competent Way of Being**

There are many aspects to cultural competence; however, when I conceptualise the practice, I am drawn back to some key principles which frame my approach.

#### *Social Justice*

In order to embed cultural competence, it is recognised that universities need to develop an organisational culture that is committed to social justice and human rights, and which values and supports Indigenous cultures, knowledges and peoples "as integral to the core business of the institution" (UA, 2011, p. 3).

Just over 53 years ago, the 1967 Referendum promised a new equitable relationship between First Nations peoples and mainstream Australia, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would enjoy the same rights and protections as all Australians (Behrendt, 2003, p. 13). Behrendt states that since 1967 it has "become increasingly evident that the formal structures and institutions within Australia have not changed enough to equalise—let alone reverse—the socioeconomic impact of colonisation and past government policies and practices" (Behrendt, 2003, p. 13). In fact, the evidence would suggest that there has been no will to change the institutions in substantive ways.

A lack of substantive change means that people continue to suffer greatly. The doctor who makes an incorrect assessment about a person's illness based on their racist perceptions about Aboriginal people; the lawyer who assumes guilt because of a client's Aboriginality; the prison staffer whose indifference to the heat in the back of a paddy wagon causes a man in custody to die; the Federal Government policy that suspends the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) and bluntly casts Aboriginal people as alcoholics who sexually abuse their children; the HSC students who racially attack an Aboriginal poet because they didn't like their examination; the football fans who racially vilify Aboriginal players; the taxi driver who refuses to stop for Aboriginal passengers; the list goes on and on. Members of the dominant non-Indigenous society generally remain oblivious to these "everyday" acts of racism that are familiar to those from minorities and oppressed groups. Racism and injustice present a constant cacophony of insults and barbs which have ongoing and negative impacts on the recipients of such behaviours.

Social justice is concerned with the conditions for persons to participate in community and in society, enjoying their full human flourishing (Brennan in Rowse, 2012, p. viii). Social justice recognises that our society is socially constructed and stratified and that some people have access to resources and are valued more highly. It recognises that relations of unequal power are constantly being enacted and we are all socialised into complicity (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2014, p. 2).

Social justice is a driving principle for me, particularly in the context of a settlercolonial country like Australia where cultural competence must address racism, privilege and Whiteness, and ongoing colonialism. Earlier in my professional life, I was able to gain some practical understanding of positionality, privilege and Whiteness through both work and personal relationships. However, it was not until I commenced my PhD studies that I engaged theoretically. It was through the process of grappling with Indigenous methodologies that I engaged in a more considered examination of what it means to be a White person in this context. Guided by the literature written by Indigenous scholars such as Judy Atkinson, Karen Martin, Lester-Irabinna Rigney and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, I started to "turn the gaze"; that is, rather than focusing on engaging non-Indigenous people to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, I understood the importance of non-Indigenous people turning the gaze on ourselves to learn not only about who we are as cultural beings, but also how we interact with, and impact on, the systems that continue to marginalise and exclude. These are the areas that tend to create the most resistance in our education programmes.

It should come as no surprise that non-Indigenous people often resist talking about and examining concepts such as privilege and Whiteness; as DiAngelo (2011) explains, "White fragility is alive and well". Privilege is hard for the privileged to identify and then to know what to do about it. An important cultural competence shift for privileged people (like me) to make is to racialise ourselves. Change will not happen when we continue to talk about the "Other" but not address our own racial identities, power and privileges. This work must always be guided and informed by, and in relationship with, Aboriginal and other minoritised peoples. The danger is that done badly, it becomes about "us" and how we feel and our limited self-knowledge, and blinkers about our racial identity confine us to perpetuating ignorance and silence about injustice.

Eddo-Lodge (2017, p. 92) describes Whiteness as "a manipulative, suffocating blanket of power that envelops everything we know like a snowy day". It is omnipresent and yet it is also about absences:

White Privilege is an absence of the consequences of racism. An absence of structural discrimination, an absence of your race being viewed as a problem first and foremost, an absence of "less likely to succeed because of my race." It is an absence of funny looks directed at you because you're believed to be in the wrong place, an absence of cultural expectations, an absence of violence enacted on your ancestors because of the colour of their skin, an absence of subtle marginalisation and othering—exclusion from the narrative of being human. (Eddo-Lodge, 2017, p. 86)

It is the absences that can make it hard for people to engage with White Privilege. It is hard for most of us to examine what is not there, rather than what is, especially when that avoidance is supported and reinforced by our social norms and institutional structures. A crucial aspect of cultural competence is to develop the ability to surface and engage with those absences; to see those things that are often unseen by the privileged.

A privilege that is often unseen in the higher education sector is understanding how the dominance of western knowledge systems and structures has created unsafe environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and has overtly contributed to the colonisation process, and this creates particular challenges (Riley, Howard-Wagner, Mooney, & Kutay, 2013, p. 256). Battiste (2013) describes three tensions in decolonising education spaces. First, the struggle to sensitise the Eurocentric consciousness in general, and educators in particular, to the colonial and neo-colonial practices that continue to marginalise and racialise Indigenous students; second, convincing non-Indigenous people to acknowledge the unique knowledges and relationships that Indigenous people derive from place and their homeland; and third, there is a tension for all learners to learn respectfully with Aboriginal people, without appropriating their new knowledge and experience for their own ends.

#### *Knowing Self*

One of the challenges of cultural competence education is that, by its nature, individual behavioural change is often the focus, rather than systemic behavioural change being promoted. Many programmes grow out of the cultures and intellectual traditions of the dominant society and focus on cultural awareness, which effectively reinforces the dominant culture (Young, 1999). Acquiring knowledge about other cultures limits learning about ourselves and our cultures (Kumagai & Lypson, 2009) and usually avoids addressing institutional racism and oppression (Abrams & Moio, 2009, p. 180; Garran & Werkmeister, 2013). Almost certainly, many programmes avoid the kind of critical thinking which addresses ongoing traumas arising from colonisation and racism. Without critical thinking, cultural competence becomes a safe alternative, complicit in avoiding difficult conversations about racism and individuals' beliefs or their "heart and soul" (Yoon, 2012, p. 598) and difference is identified as dysfunction rather than ongoing effects of trauma, colonisation and racism (Herring, Spangaro, Lauw, & McNamara, 2013, p. 108).

At one level, cultural competence is about the ability to relate to people who may be of different cultures to oneself, including all aspects of cultures such as race, gender and sexuality. To relate to difference effectively, it is fundamental that one knows oneself. We are all constructed of multiple identities, and how we embody our identities and walk and act in the world is critical to understanding who we are; not only those things that are easily observable—such as what we eat, the holidays we celebrate, the clothes we wear, the languages we speak—but who we are at a deeper level. This includes understanding not only what our worldview is, but how it was formed. It means searching for clarity about how we were socialised, what our biases are and where they come from.

This is harder than it sounds, particularly for those of us from dominant White cultures. Often, in workshops, I ask participants to share just one thing about their culture. This seemingly simple question can flummox people, particularly those who identify as Australian. I am frequently told, "I have no culture; I'm Australian". White Australians have not had to develop a racial identity (Sisneros, 2008, p. 29), unlike people of colour who, whether or not they choose to be, are often labelled by their visible racial identity. This is exemplified by Nyadol Nyuon when she tweeted: "I am uncomfortable when, in media interviews, I am referred to as a South Sudanese lawyer. It would be accurate to refer to me as commercial lawyer" (Nyuon, 2018).

We are all cultural beings and have multiple identities. I identify as English, Australian, a woman, an educator, a wife, a daughter, an aunt, a friend and as White. The absences of how you identify can also be telling. I usually "forget" to identify that I am heterosexual, for example; this aspect of my identity is never challenged and is usually invisible to me. Likewise, it would not have occurred to me to identify as White in the earlier part of my life.

I always apply the "so what" test to self-reflection. It is easy to say, I'm a White middle-class, middle-aged immigrant woman from England. But, so what? It is not enough to just identify who we are, or even to make visible the identities that are so normalised that we forget we have them. We also need to critique how this influences and impacts on our interactions with people of different cultures and, most importantly, how we interact with and benefit from existing social structures. As Kondrat (1999) says, "advocates of critical reflectivity start with the supposition that all people and institutions somehow contribute to the oppressive behaviours and practices that perpetuate inequality" (quoted in Sisneros, 2008, p. 23). It is this exploration of how we, and the institutions and systems in which we participate, contribute to perpetuating inequality that is essential for cultural competence. As Razack highlights:

encounters between dominant and subordinate groups cannot be "managed" simply as pedagogical comments requiring cultural, racial or gender sensitivity. Without understanding how responses to subordinate groups are socially organised to sustain existing power arrangements, we cannot hope either to communicate across social hierarchies or to work to eliminate them. (Razack, 1994, p. 8)

Self-reflection is by its nature problematic because not only is it socially constructed (Sisneros, 2008, p. 21), but it is also questionable whether one can really know one's self. It is hard to view the world outside our enculturated "attitudes, presuppositions, biases, and assumptions" (Laughlin, McManus, & d'Aquili, 1992, p. 24), and this inability to self-examine can lead to a "self-confirming cycle, where we reinforce our own beliefs" (Brookfield, 1998, p. 197). However, failure to engage in this work leaves one unprepared for engaging in relationships in a multicultural environment (Sisneros, 2008). Self-reflection does not just happen and is a capability that needs to be intentionally developed. My aim, as an educator, is for transformative learning which Mezirow (2003) defines as "learning that transforms problematic frames of reference—sets of fixed assumptions and expectations (habits of mind, meaning perspectives, mindsets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective and emotionally able to change".

Developing effective critical self-reflection skills is an essential component of cultural competence. Without it, reflection can be superficial and fail to lead to a lack of disruption or change in thinking or actions, whereas critical self-reflection involves social and political analyses which lead to transformative changes (Fook, White, & Gardner, 2006, p. 9).

#### *Re-storying*

At the NCCC, we situate our work in the theory of cultural competence. However, we are also committed to decolonising praxis, discussion of which is generally absent from much of the cultural competence literature. One of the NCCC's core values is to draw on Indigenous Knowledges (IKs), and work in collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and staff to challenge structures and knowledge systems in the higher education space, which continues to discriminate and exclude.

Decolonising the academy in the NCCC context is about subversion, which Sefa Dei (2016, p. 28) identifies as "putting a critical gaze on structures and process of educational delivery" (i.e. the structures and process of teaching, learning and administering education) that continually create and reproduce sites of marginality and colonising education for learners. For those of us who are non-Indigenous, working to a decolonising agenda raises interesting personal and pedagogical issues about our place in this space, of which we must be acutely cognizant. Importantly, this focus on decolonising knowledges avoids a critical element of returning land. As Tuck and Yang (2012, p. 7) explain:

decolonization in the settler colonial context must involve the repatriation of land simultaneous to the recognition of how land and relations to land have always already been differently understood and enacted; that is, all of the land, and not just symbolically.

Sefa Dei (2016, p. 29) also makes the vital connection between decolonisation, land and IKs. He says that without addressing issues of social justice and inclusion within the academy, there will be:

progressive and global emptying not only of knowledge but of bodies, of diversity, of creativity, of potential and kinetic energy, and of life. Transformation can only be realised when there is a space and pale for the natural world, the land and for bodies that hold and carry knowledge to engage their right to know, to show, and to tell their knowing their way transparently and without negative repercussion or obliterating neutrality.

This idea also points to Corntassel, Chaw-win-is and T'lakwadzi's (2009) dialogue about re-storying and truth-telling which they identify as a form of resistance to colonisation (Corntassel et al., 2009, p. 147). Stories in this context are "lived values that form the basis for Indigenous governance and regeneration" (Corntassel et al., 2009, p. 138). They must connect to Indigenous ways of storytelling and "cannot be disentangled from ongoing relationships to their homeland" (Corntassel et al., 2009, p. 147).

Recognising and deconstructing narratives is a powerful way to disrupt dominant narratives of oppression. As Razack (2000, p. 182) reminds us, "national narratives are those of the dominant group". They are also a tool of colonisation; as Said explains, "The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the main connections between them" (Said quoted in Razack, 2000, p. 182). This point is also explored by Sensoy and DiAngelo: "Patterns, although enacted by individuals, accrue collectively at the group level and are the result of socialization; they are not 'our fault,' but we are responsible for becoming aware of and interrupting them".

Consequently, with the intention of engaging with a decolonising lens, I increasingly frame our programmes around recognising, deconstructing and re-storying national, institutional and personal narratives which are "overarching stories, guiding myths or metaphors", and one of the "primary modes of knowing for humans" (Milojevic & Inayatullah, 2015, p. 152). Taking a re-storying approach creates space for diverse knowledges and Indigenous retelling of narratives. It also makes space for truth-telling and, in doing so, allows for what Corntassel et al. (2009, p. 138) call the re-storying of the "dominant culture version of history; that is, we must make decolonizing space for Indigenous history—counter narratives of diplomacy, law and peacemaking practices—as told by Indigenous people themselves". The crucial piece to this work, and often the hardest for the resistors to engage with, is to question the underlying assumptions embedded into narratives (Milojevic & Inayatullah, 2015, p. 155). An inability to adequately challenge these assumptions, or understand the deep narrative basis for the assumptions, will lead to a lack of transformation.

Deep deconstructing of narratives creates space not only for different perspectives, experiences and truths, but also for non-Indigenous settlers to question the narratives that the nation-state, the media, our families and we as individuals hold up as immutable facts. It allows for a more honest exploration of our relationship to Aboriginal lands and peoples, and it creates an opportunity to more accurately retell our shared histories. It also leads us to action because "processes of re-storying and truth-telling are not effective without some larger community-centred, decolonising actions behind them" (Corntassel et al., 2009, p. 139).

#### *Action*

As I stated earlier in this chapter, my commitment to cultural competence is a commitment to transformation—of myself, the institution and broader society. Although cultural competence starts with the self, it is not enough to only change one's thinking. hooks reminds us of Freire when she says that conscientisation is not an end in itself; it is necessary to verify in praxis what we know in consciousness (hooks, 1994, p. 47). If we consider that institutions become institutions because the things they do become habit—or, as Ahmed explains, are "how we do things here", where the very claim of a "how" does not need to be claimed—we might describe institutionalisation as "becoming background", where being "in" the institution is to "agree" with what becomes background (Ahmed, 2017, p. 25). Likewise, we might describe cultural competence as surfacing what becomes background and taking the steps to create change. What those steps look like will depend on the context.

In our workshops, we end with participants creating personal action plans. We remind people that the task might seem immense but that each of us can create change in our own contexts, and to break it into smaller achievable actions. Importantly, however, the focus must extend beyond the individual. Cultural change can only be sustainable when it has become systemic; when it becomes background and "how we do things here". To that end, leadership and organisational commitment to change is a vital part of cultural competence work. Importantly, strategic intent must be translated into tangible behaviours and actions across the organisation.

#### **Conclusion**

As an educator, I am constantly reflecting on the boundaries of our work, how far to push and when to pull back. This is particularly pertinent in an institutional setting where people have not necessarily invited you to prod and poke their innermost beliefs and values. This is personal work, challenging work, and if we are true to the theory that we are all on a journey we have to allow that people have their own itineraries and allow them to set their own course to an extent. This is also community work. You cannot be a cultural competence island: cultural competence can only be developed in relationship to others. Another critical aspect of the work is how we institutionalise it. If we focus on the individual, we miss the imperative to enhance institutional enablers and dismantle barriers.

Cultural competence is about creating change. It is not a warm and fuzzy "tick a box" exercise to make us feel good, and it is not enough to be only aware of our context and cultures. We also need to take action. There is a requirement for change in this work, of ourselves and our society. I hope that we can ensure that every one of our students is able to understand how their world has been constructed, and how those constructs and the lenses through which they perceive it and their actions impact on the people they work for and with, whether that is as a doctor, a nurse, a banker, a magistrate or a footballer and knowing all that then they can work towards change.

This reflection has been a short exploration of some of the underpinning concepts that anchor my approach to cultural competence. Surfacing and explaining these anchors is critical self-reflection in practice and assists in asserting my philosophical and pedagogical approach to teaching and researching cultural competence.

#### **References**


**Gabrielle Russell** is the Acting Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. Her diverse experience has been gained working in non-government organisations, politics, business, church organisations, and higher education. She is particularly interested in how to develop cultural competence from a non-Indigenous perspective and, in particular, how to facilitate a deeper understanding of transformative ways to learn and work together. Gabrielle's teaching and research interests include race and racism, critical pedagogies, service learning, and cultural competence.

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## **Chapter 4 Locating Human Rights in the Cultural Competence Context**

**Michael Johnston**

#### **Introduction**

In settler-colonial countries, where European powers have forcibly established themselves on top of pre-existing Indigenous societies, formally recognising Indigenous sovereignty and supporting Indigenous self-determination should be central to the philosophy and praxis of cultural competence. Australian higher education institutions have taken important steps in addressing systemic Indigenous disadvantage. While cultural competence attempts to foster social and emotional wellbeing and encourages critical self-reflection in order to understand how one's beliefs and attitudes are formed by culture, in order to create behavioural change, Indigenous sovereignty as a central aspect to cultural competence in Australian higher education remains neglected. When framed in the context of the relationship between the settler-state and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particular social patterns, such as the stark inequality in access to higher education, appear as a consequence of the failure of educational institutions to respond to the ongoing impact of colonisation. In order to address Indigenous disadvantage, public universities that are committed to engaging with the field of cultural competence must take seriously their complicity in the maintenance of settler-colonial institutions that generate and distribute knowledge and opportunity in society. A deeper, multilayered knowledge and understanding of the role that Indigenous sovereignty and national identity play in settler-colonial institutions, and recognising the social responsibility to facilitate Indigenous self-determination, must be embedded in cultural competence philosophy and praxis in Australia.

Developing a nuanced understanding of Indigenous sovereignty and national identity are key steps in coming to understand one's own cultural values and their implications for making respectful, reflective, reasoned choices on the journey towards

M. Johnston (B)

The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia e-mail: mikeyjohnston28@gmail.com

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_4

cultural competence. Cultural competence is a set of intercultural communication skills, attitudes, behaviours and policies, which emerged in the late 1980s in the United States of America (US) in order to address inequalities between ethnic and linguistically diverse groups in the health care setting (Cross et al., 1989). Inequalities in health outcomes were identified as having been the result of discrimination, poverty and isolation; for example, First Nations peoples living in remote areas were receiving poor health services (Cross et al., 1989). Those advocating on behalf of groups and individuals experiencing structural disadvantage criticised the US government and the health care system for failing to meet their international human rights obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN General Assembly, 1948). Specifically, the Declaration identifies the right to health which is a "fundamental part of our human rights and of our understanding of a life in dignity," thereby grounding cultural competence in a human rights framework, and establishing the need for institutional change (World Health Organisation n.d., p. 1). Since the 1980s, cultural competence has expanded into other fields—such as higher education, government, business and social sciences—in the US and other settler-colonial countries including Australia.

Cultural competence is a developing paradigm aimed at increasing understanding and effective communication skills in intercultural settings and has been taken up in a variety of contexts. In recent years, Australian universities have attempted to grapple with disparities in access to higher education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, while aiming to integrate Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) across disciplines (Battiste, 2005; Rigney, 1999, 2017; Riley, Howard-Wagner, Mooney, & Kutay, 2013; Sherwood et al., 2011). As the peak body representing the higher education sector in Australia, Universities Australia (UA) recommends the implementation of cultural competence which it defines as "student and staff knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Australian cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of Indigenous protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in Indigenous contexts congruent to the expectations of Indigenous Australian peoples" (UA, 2011). Accordingly, Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu, The University of Sydney's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander integrated strategy (2012), sets out a whole of organisation approach to the development and integration of Indigenous cultures, pedagogies and epistemologies within the University, including the establishment of cultural competence as a graduate quality, and the creation of a National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC).

Established in 2014, the NCCC's mission is to be a thought leader in cultural competence philosophy and praxis, which includes challenging the prevailing assumptions about power, privilege and racism which are embedded within Australian public institutions such as universities, health organisations and government bodies (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017). In order to achieve this mission, the NCCC is guided by a human rights framework that privileges "Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing" and emphasises critical self-reflection at both interpersonal and organisational levels (Sherwood, 2010). The term "human rights" appears throughout the seminal chapter, "How We Do Business: Setting the Agenda for Cultural Competence at The University of Sydney" (2017) by Professor Juanita Sherwood and Dr. Gabrielle Russell from the NCCC. It appears more than 40 times in the foundational text on the topic of cultural competence in Australian higher education, the *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency* (2011). However, outside of statements about discrimination, the relationship between human rights and cultural competence remains opaque in these core cultural competence texts, requiring further investigation and analysis. This chapter explores and clarifies what "human rights" means in the context of cultural competence in Australia, based on Indigenous sovereignty and its implications for non-Indigenous people making respectful, reflective, reasoned choices to support Indigenous self-determination.

#### **Indigenous Sovereignty**

Indigenous sovereignty is intrinsic to Indigenous people and the lands to which they belong and is a vital concept to understand in the journey towards cultural competence. This chapter explores approaches to understanding Indigenous sovereignty of scholars from several English language settler-colonial nations: the US, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. In order to have understandings of "Indigenous Australian cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of Indigenous protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in Indigenous contexts congruent to the expectations of Indigenous Australian peoples," universities must formally recognise Indigenous sovereignty and work towards the facilitation of Indigenous self-determination (UA, 2011). This requires the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in University policies, public spaces and curricula, and an acknowledgement of the impact settler-colonialism has had on Indigenous people's ability to determine their own affairs, through a commitment to respecting, supporting and promoting Indigenous people and their cultural autonomy. In this context, sovereignty can be seen as a European concept that is intrinsic to Indigenous people, and which Indigenous people have asserted as a political strategy since their lands were invaded and forcibly colonised by European powers. This is not to suggest that Indigenous people did not have sovereignty before colonisation; only that it exists within Indigenous epistemological, ontological and axiological realms that are distinct from—and yet can be located within—settler-colonial legal frameworks. Indigenous people's human right to self-determination has come about as a result of the existence of Indigenous sovereignty and ongoing resistance to settler-colonialism.

The recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in Australia requires acknowledgement of, and respect for, the heterogeneity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander national, cultural and linguistic diversity. As an indication of Indigenous cultural diversity prior to colonisation, 29 clan groups make up the Eora nation in the Sydney region alone, while there are over 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations across Australia, each defined by distinct boundaries, spiritual systems, customs, laws, traditions, artistic practices and languages (Hinkson & Harris, 2010). In the years following 1788, the Eora nation bore the brunt of the British invasion which eventually extended across the entire continent, the ongoing impact of which continues to maintain Indigenous disadvantage. Sherwood states that within this context, the original violation of Indigenous sovereignty "was committed through the breach of international law by the British under which they claimed Australia as 'terra nullius' and hence ignored the sovereignty of the original inhabitants and their property laws. The violence that unfolded in many areas throughout Australia resulted from the lack of respect for the sovereignty of the countries throughout the nation" (Sherwood, 2010, p. 17). Sherwood criticises settler-colonial cultural, legal and political hegemony, which has systematically marginalised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their epistemologies, ontologies and axiologies (Sherwood, 2010).

Sovereignty carries a number of different meanings depending on the context in which it is used, and has several interdependent elements; for example, sovereignty is conceptualised as being reciprocal, meaning that independent state bodies recognise the status of neighbouring bodies to govern themselves within their territorial geographies without foreign interference (Krasner, 1999). This reality has seen the development of treaties between First Nations peoples and governments in settlercolonial countries across the globe. Sovereignty can also be thought of as the legitimised system of authority claimed by a nation to govern itself and determine who is and who is not part of the nation. Indigenous sovereignty is intrinsic to Indigenous people. However, they are frequently forced to claim their nationhood and define who belongs to their communities, in response to the imposition of settler sovereignty, which is violently overlaid by illegitimate governments, on the unceded territories to which Indigenous people belong. In this way, the occupation of a territory by Indigenous peoples prior to European invasion challenges the settler-colonial status quo, as the violation of Indigenous sovereignty through the forced imposition of European sovereignty brings into question the legitimacy of the nation-state. This reality has resulted in the need for agreement-making between Indigenous people and the state, and structural reform to address the inequalities in health, access to education, rates of incarceration and high rates of poverty experienced by Indigenous people.

In the Australian context, Moreton-Robinson (2015) explains the dismissal of Indigenous sovereignty by the British Empire as the result of a logic of possession, which continues to function as the rationale for the Australian settler-state's illegitimate sovereignty. Having emerged from a number of European treaties in the Peace of Westphalia during the mid-seventeenth century, European sovereignty established the principle of a nation-state by linking sovereignty to the right to a specific geographical territory. Accordingly, sovereignty became deeply connected to a nation's geographic boundaries, creating an understanding of "insider" and "outsider" members of the limited community (Anderson, 1983). Moreton-Robinson argues that a racialised logic of possession was deeply embedded in the regulation of non-white entry into Australia through the White Australia Policy (Moreton-Robinson, 2015). Reflecting Canada and New Zealand's Immigration Acts that gave preferential treatment to European immigrants, the US was also determined to ensure that the English language settler-state would be controlled by and for those of European heritage, which it did through the Naturalisation Act of 1790 (Moreton-Robinson, 2015). In this context, Moreton-Robinson suggests that the development of these regulatory mechanisms is indicative of the "inextricable connections between white possessive logics, race, and the foundation of nation-states" in settler-colonial societies (2015, p. 13). Having survived the impact of frontier violence, ongoing dispossession and formal attempts to assimilate Indigenous populations, Moreton-Robinson argues that Indigenous sovereignty exists within the urban metropolises of Sydney, New York, Toronto and Auckland, where Indigenous people maintain ongoing ontological relationships to their lands, regardless of the presence of a "modernity" that seeks to render them invisible (Moreton-Robinson, 2015).

Non-Indigenous scholars writing about Indigenous sovereignty frequently fall into the trap of identifying the various tensions, contradictions and difficulties that arise when Indigenous sovereignty is claimed, or recognised, in a legal context, and conclude that the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty is naïve, idealistic or untenable. This misunderstanding emerges from confusing Indigenous sovereignty, with bundles of rights given to a people by the state. Rather, Indigenous sovereignty exists whether the state recognises it or not. Fairbanks (1995) fails to recognise that Indigenous sovereignty exists outside of the normative legal frameworks of the American settler-colonial system, which reveals the limitations of settler-colonial approaches to understanding Indigenous sovereignty. Through his argument that sovereignty is only legitimate when a body is willing and able to exercise the executive power of a government over a sufficient population and adequate land base, Fairbanks (1995) views Indigenous sovereignty through a western worldview, and determines that Native American tribal governments retain only a limited form of sovereignty, if any at all. An emphasis on the settler-colonial legal mechanisms which recognise Native American sovereignty leads Fairbanks to conclude that Native American sovereignty not only is limited in scope but can technically be eliminated by the United States Congress (Fairbanks, 1995). He suggests that Indigenous sovereignty is an illusion because Native American peoples will always be dependent on the settler-state, and takes the cynical view that "whether Native American peoples, and their governments, are sufficiently resilient to survive even another generation or so remains to be seen" (Fairbanks, 1995, p. 149). In contrast, Indigenous sovereignty which is intrinsic to Indigenous people and the lands to which they belong highlights the illusion of settler sovereignty which has been manufactured without the consent of those whose lands have been colonised. Indigenous scholars working in this field are not so willing to dismiss sovereignty as a modality for resistance, resurgence, and the maintenance of Indigenous cultural and national identities.

In response to settler-colonial attempts to render Aboriginal people invisible, Watson (2009) invokes the notion of the "unsettled native" to frame the consequences of British denials of Indigenous sovereignty. Operationalised through the legal fiction of terra nullius, James Cook dismissed the sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in 1770, beginning a process that would attempt to render Aboriginal people as homeless and property-less in their own lands (Watson, 2009). In spite of settler-state acts which have sought to erase Aboriginal laws and national identities, Watson highlights the fringe spaces in modern Australia that Aboriginal people have occupied, such as the Canberra Aboriginal Tent Embassy and other symbolic spaces of resistance, that represent the intrinsic quality of Indigenous sovereignty. The Tent Embassy has been a space of resistance to settler-colonialism in the struggle for Aboriginal land rights since its establishment in 1972, and symbolises the tension between the settler-state and Indigenous sovereignty, through the maintenance of a sacred fire, continued Indigenous occupation and the word "sovereignty" displayed on the lawns of Old Parliament House; bringing into sharp relief "the illusion of the free, informed, and consenting native's participation in the colonial project" (Watson, 2015, p. 30). The erasure of Indigenous sovereignty in the policies, public spaces and curricula of education institutions such as universities has emerged within a broader contest over whose national identities are deemed to hold legitimate authority.

In contrast to Fairbanks' dismissal of Indigenous sovereignty as a naïve political strategy in advancing Native American self-determination, O'Brien (2018) argues that *tino rangatiratanga*, M¯aori sovereignty, has played a tangible role in public consciousness in Aotearoa New Zealand, linked to the ways in which that sovereignty has been negotiated between M¯aori people and the settler-state. In response to the subjugation of M¯aori people by settler-colonial governments, the notion of "political entrepreneurship" is conceptualised by M¯aori academics as a powerful means for drawing on M¯aori tribal identities to mobilise political support, advance rights claims, and bring together M¯aori communities in ways that support the sociocultural spaces they occupy (O'Brien, 2018). With the Treaty of Waitangi, and the recognition of M¯aori as a national language, and a distinct colonial history, *tino rangatiratanga* animates politics in Aotearoa New Zealand political arenas in ways that they do not in the US. However, we can see similarities in instances where M¯aori sovereignty is constrained by settler-colonial pragmatism and threatened by dominating settlercolonial regimes that are determined not to relinquish power over the territory they colonised.

In reference to the numerous treaties signed by Native American peoples and the US government, scholars Alfred and Tomkins (2010) argue that the forces which produce high rates of poverty, violence and alcoholism within Indigenous communities in North America have emerged from a spiritual crisis caused by the dispossession of those peoples from their lands. As a result of the imposition of European power over First Nations peoples in Canada, Alfred and Tomkins reject the need for Indigenous sovereignty to be recognised by the government; instead of arguing for a "regeneration" approach that emphasises resistance, cultural strengthening and self-determination (2010, p. 4). Alfred and Tomkins insist that First Nations peoples should be wary of the settler-state which has rewritten histories, created systems that justify colonial rule, and maintained control over Indigenous people through deliberate attempts to cause them to "forget who they are" (Alfred & Tomkins, 2010). Instead, they suggest that self-determination can become the "physical manifestation of nationhood; it is about (re)constructing individual, collective and social identities in ways that reflect Indigenous values and teachings" (Alfred & Tomkins, 2010, p. 6). In this way, the ongoing practice of culture at the local level, which is not contingent on formal recognition of heritage, identity or political status by the settler-state, becomes the most authentic means though which to live as Indigenous people (Alfred & Tomkins, 2010). This supports the argument that Indigenous sovereignty is intrinsic to Indigenous people and the lands to which they belong. That sovereignty exists whether or not the settler-state acknowledges it and is grounded in the lived realities of Indigenous people and their relationships to environment and one another.

#### **The Right to Self-Determination**

The existence of Indigenous sovereignty has major social and political implications for modern settler-colonial countries. The United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has come to represent the minimum standard for the treatment of Indigenous people. However, it features a major omission the acknowledgement of Indigenous sovereignty. In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the UNDRIP by a majority of 144 states in favour and four against. There were 11 abstentions; and the four most socially and economically prosperous settlercolonial countries, Australia, New Zealand, US and Canada, were the only objectors, citing concerns about potential implications for the undermining of the sovereignty and legal systems of the settler-state. Former Australian Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough spoke out against the adoption of UNDRIP, claiming that "there should only be one law for all Australians, and we should not enshrine in law practices that are not acceptable in the modern world." Similarly, in a tone that was dismissive of the empowering nature of the Declaration, for Indigenous people, New South Wales Liberal Senator Marise Payne claimed that "they seem, to many readers, to require the recognition of Indigenous rights to lands which are now lawfully owned by other citizens, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and therefore to have some quite significant potential to impact on the rights of third parties." Despite opposition from conservatives and the non-binding status of the Declaration within international law, since 2007 the four objecting states have turned their votes around, and UNDRIP has come to represent a significant standard for the treatment of Indigenous people around the world.

UNDRIP is central to the human rights tensions contained in cultural competence philosophy and praxis. International recognition of Indigenous self-determination was a major achievement. The Declaration recognises Indigenous people's right to control their own affairs through freedom from discrimination, and the right to meaningful participation with the state in decision-making. The Declaration provides important language to frame the goals and aspirations of Indigenous people within international legal frameworks and goes a significant way in recognising the political legitimacy of Indigenous decision-making. It also includes the requirement of states to cooperate in good faith with Indigenous people to obtain their free, prior and informed consent when adopting legislative measures which may affect them (Article 19). Article 19 contains what are arguably the most useful lines in the Declaration for Indigenous people in asserting their sovereignty, and reflects ethical tensions which go to the heart of settler-states; for example, the questionable legitimacy of settlerstates through their failure to obtain free, prior and informed consent in the occupation of Indigenous territories. The following Articles contained in the Declaration outline the right to Indigenous self-determination and represent the minimum standard of the treatment of Indigenous people by their respective states (UNDRIP, 2007):

Article 4: Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.

Article 5: Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.

Article 18: Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own Indigenous decisionmaking institutions.

Article 19: States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.

The existence of Indigenous sovereignty is the driving force in the creation of this core human rights instrument, and while the inclusion of the right to free, prior and informed consent is significant in the advancement of Indigenous rights, the failure of states to recognise Indigenous sovereignty has resulted in a document that falls short of reflecting the truth of settler-colonial ethical obligations. The adoption of UNDRIP by the UN General Assembly in 2007 was the culmination of decades of drafting, advocacy, negotiations and appeals to states and the international human rights community by Indigenous people and non-Indigenous allies. It was a landmark achievement, particularly through the unequivocal recognition of Indigenous people's right to self-determination (Cowan, 2013). However, persistent claims by Indigenous people framed around sovereignty have been met with sustained opposition from states whose concerns centre on the potential fragmentation of their territorial integrity, leading to the formation of new micro-states (Cowan, 2013). In opposition to these concerns, Cowan argues that "the professed fear of states is disproportionate to the actual threat to their sovereignty …. Simply asserting the right to self-determination does not mean sovereign independence would always be preferred. The goal is almost always self-determination alongside the other people sharing the same state: interdependence rather than independence" (Cowan, 2013, p. 268).

#### **National Identity and Cultural Competence**

Higher education institutions are social products that cannot be separated from the specific historical contexts from which they emerge (Seddon, 2001). In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have experienced frontier violence, dispossession, exclusion from education systems, and assimilation through the reproduction of settler-colonial epistemological traditions that marginalise IKs in systems of education (Ball, 2004; Denis, 2011; Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003; McMurchy-Pilkington, Pikiao, & Rongomai, 2008; Russell-Mundine, 2016). Persistent omissions of Indigenous cultures, histories and languages in Australian higher education have been attributed to a range of factors embedded within universities, including the privileging of European epistemologies, ontologies and axiologies, and failing to attract, support, retain and promote Indigenous staff and students (Russell-Mundine, 2016; Wolfe, 2006). In response to this reality, the integration of cultural competence within Australian higher education has been accompanied by calls for "recognition of our First Nation's people sovereignty and current circumstances resulting from invasion and ongoing colonisation" as well as to "respect and recognise Indigenous Knowledges" in the academy (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017, p. 138).

In the case of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, colonisation is not merely a process but a dominant power structure that violently supplants Indigenous communities with a new colonial society on the expropriated land (Wolfe, 2006). Given this reality, educational institutions are "cultural constructions grounded in the worldviews, beliefs, and norms of those who conceptualise and teach the curricula," and therefore cannot be separated from the colonial contexts from which they emerge (Ball, 2004, p. 456; Seddon, 2001). In light of this, the provision of higher education is a significant space of contest for the settler-state, in the ongoing omission of Indigenous sovereignty through significant distortions of the past (Seddon, 2001). Responding to the powerful regulatory technology of education, Indigenous people have developed modes of resistance to "the logic of elimination" that is integral to the settler-colonial project, producing unstable, contested relationships of power within Australian universities (Wolfe, 2006, p. 391).

The development of higher education institutions in Australia has been shaped by the conflict over representations of the colonial past. Ranging from indifference to frontier violence, assimilation, protection and segregation, to reconciliation, successive Australian governments have sought to privilege western norms in universities; relegating Indigenous identities, knowledge, histories and cultures to stereotypical ancient imaginings, including representations of Aboriginal people as an appropriate study of "stone age man" at the "threshold of history" (Clark in Parkes, 2007, p. 386). Taken up by the Howard Liberal government in 2006 as a renewal of content relating to Australian identity, curriculum design has been a space where colonising practices are both reproduced and resisted (Parkes, 2007). Known as the History Wars, the consolidation of national identity by some Australian conservatives has ignored a long history of colonial violence and Aboriginal resistance, instead of solidifying the cultural myth that Australia was relatively peacefully settled, with Aboriginal lives having been lost as an unintended consequence of exposure to European diseases in the early colonial period (Clark, 2008). The History Wars were framed by writers such as Geoffrey Blainey as a triumphalist celebration of the achievements of socalled "settlement," including the bringing about of western civilisation, technological developments and liberal democracy to the Australian continent (Parkes, 2007, p. 388).

In response to systemic Indigenous disadvantage, UA has called for the Indigenisation of higher education, as a central element in the adoption of cultural competence philosophy and praxis, in a way that "incorporates the in-depth study of unique elements of contemporary life in Indigenous communities, such as the protection of land rights, subsistence, sovereignty and self-determination" (UA, 2011). In order to understand Australian higher education institutions as spaces that have the power to erase or highlight Indigenous sovereignty, it is important to examine the origins of national identity which have become embedded in every aspect of settler-colonial society, including educational institutions. Anderson (1983) defines the nation as "an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign" (p. 6).

A nation is thought of as "imagined" because individuals will never meet, let alone come to know every other member of the nation, and yet can be confident in their "steady, anonymous, simultaneous activity" across time and geographic space (Anderson, 1983, p. 26). The nation is thought of as a "community" as there is a "deep horizontal comradeship" that connects members of a nation even in the presence of stark inequalities between groups and individuals (Anderson, 1983, p. 7). Nations are thought of as "limited" because they are constrained by distinct political boundaries that regulate how much territory the nation can occupy because, according to Anderson, multiple nations cannot share the same political jurisdiction (Anderson, 1983). Finally, a nation is thought of as "sovereign" because the concept was produced by European societies at a time when the old, divinely ordained dynastic realms were being dismantled by revolutionary Enlightenment Secularism (Anderson, 1983, p. 7). In this sense, Indigenous national identities, such as the Wiradjuri Nation (New South Wales, Australia) or the Great Sioux Nation (South Dakota, US)—defined by their own languages, cultures and particular geographic boundaries—present a significant problem for the settler-state, as they undermine the political legitimacy of the nation.

Anderson's observations on the development of national identities as imagined political communities, in which people perceive themselves as a homogenous body connected across time and geography, provide several ways for understanding how national identities are created and their implications for individuals within those imagined communities (Anderson, 1983). Following the decline in monarchies and dynastic rule across Western Europe, the emergence of print media that disseminated information about world events, within specific political boundaries, allowed for each individual within that jurisdiction to share the same experiences simultaneously (Anderson, 1983). The convergence of the printing press and capitalist economies was a catalyst for the standardised languages that gave rise to national imaginings that responded to the limitations of mortality "by transforming fatality into continuity" (Anderson, 1983, p. 11). By no means exclusive to the nation-states of western Europe, continuity is a core component of Anderson's (1983) theory of national identity. From the settler-colonial ontological perspective, prior to the age of vernacular print media, religion was the primary category by which people imagined themselves to be part of a community that existed beyond the life span of the individual (Anderson, 1983). However, this changed dramatically with the advent of the industrial revolution, which saw an explosion in systems of production, powerful new communication technologies and the stabilisation of languages-of-state (Anderson, 1983). In this way, the emergence of nationalism in Europe during the eighteenth century was not simply the awakening of nations to self-consciousness, but the intentional construction of a secular political community with a common language, located in a limited geographical jurisdiction (Anderson, 1983). Tension arises when we consider how these early European nations were conceptualised as sovereign, while the imagined political communities of Indigenous people were not.

While the concept of a nation was imagined to be sovereign as a means of breaking away from classic religious communities that dominated the West prior to European capitalism, secular education publicly available to all citizens has seen the construction of a shared identity among a nation and its people. Higher education, therefore, can be seen as a powerful space in the nation-building projects of settler-states, through the social reproduction of national identities in teaching and learning which shapes the values of the nation (Seddon, 2001). An ethical problem arises, however, when settler-colonial education institutions fail to recognise the sovereignty, histories, cultures, languages and national identities of Indigenous people within their teaching and learning. A central aspect of Anderson's theory of national identity is the role of newspapers, radio and television in facilitating the shared experience of world events, as part of the simultaneous lived realities of members of a given nation (Anderson, 1983). Although he was writing at a time when easily accessible high-speed internet now available to most people at a moment's notice had not yet been realised, Anderson's theory remains useful for analysing the power of higher education for constructing a shared pool of narratives drawn from the lived experiences of settler-colonists (Anderson, 1983). Parkes argues that the power of education should not be underestimated, given its utility for "linking the development of the individual to the images and narratives of nationhood" (Parkes, 2007, p. 384). By ignoring Indigenous sovereignty and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' ways of knowing, higher education plays an active role in the maintenance of settlercolonial dominance, solidifying the Australian nation-state in the imagination of the individual (Anderson, 1983).

The recognition of Indigenous sovereignty is a key element in the process of interrogating higher education in settler-colonial countries, as Indigenous people have historically been excluded from institutions which have determined whose knowledge is valued and what skills should be taught. Hickling-Hudson and Ahlquist (2003) frame their critique of settler-colonial education by highlighting commonalities that exist between techniques of eroding Indigenous sovereignty, such as the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families, Native American boarding schools, and the identification of the unique social positioning of Indigenous people in the settler-state (Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003, p. 66). Through an exploration of white dominance and the erasure of Indigenous cultures within national memories, enacted by omissions in systems of education, scholars identify the need to build anti-racist alliances across ethnic, racial and cultural boundaries, that privilege Indigenous cultures and histories (Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003). As a foundation for redistributing power along more equitable lines, it is argued that anti-racist alliances are created not to elicit a sense of guilt within non-Indigenous people, but to highlight the ways that ongoing colonisation is operationalised through education systems that determine which cultural memories are worth preserving and which should be forgotten (Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003). This is core to the work of embedding cultural competence in higher education.

Universities have been sites of conflict between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in shaping perceptions of citizens through the way the past is represented (Seddon, 2001). Decisions made by University faculties, schools and departments are intimately tied to the logic of settler-colonial hegemony in determining what should be taught and how knowledge should be transferred across generations (Seddon, 2001). In favour of Indigenous voices and histories which have been excluded from higher education for the majority of the life of the nation, Parkes argues that over the past several decades, education has been a "battlefield in a war over the decentering of Europe" as the main point of reference for Australian national identity (Parkes, 2007, p. 384). Parkes discusses attitudinal changes in Australian education during the 1990s which emphasised the negative impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal societies. This resulted in some public commentators responding that the nation's past was being held hostage by partisan operatives with the intention of "infecting student's minds through the use of politically correct buzzwords that included terms like invasion, genocide, dispossession, Aboriginality and terra nullius" (Parkes, 2007, p. 388). In this way, higher education works not simply as a vehicle for the didactic transferral of knowledge from lecturer to student, but as a tool of colonial power in the production of collective national self-conceptions tied to a colonial imagination (Anderson, 1983).

Emerging from the relationship between Indigenous people and the settlerstate, the development and implementation of cultural competence in Australian higher education raise significant questions relating to the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and the need to support Indigenous self-determination as a result. The notion of an imagined community is a useful framing device for analysing the concept of national identity in modern countries that have superimposed Eurocentric colonial imaginings on top of pre-existing Indigenous societies. Anderson (1983) thinks of national identity as the deliberate construction of shared narratives, through which people perceive themselves as part of a distinct political community beyond the lifespan of the individual, despite having never met each member of that community (Anderson, 1983). What then, are institutions of higher learning, if not significant public spaces in the reproduction of settler-colonial identities and knowledge? In the context of competing national identities within a modern nation-state, Anderson argues that while nationhood carries the highest form of universally understood political legitimacy, many old nations once thought to be fully consolidated are being challenged by "sub-nationalisms" within their own borders (Anderson, 1983, p. 3). In Australia, this is being driven by and has significant implications for, Indigenous people whose sovereignty continues to be ignored in important public spaces, such as universities that reflect and maintain settler-colonial power, narratives and values.

#### **Conclusion**

Throughout this chapter, I have attempted to argue that the provision of Australian higher education can be a powerful tool for the maintenance of the settler-colonial status quo. Literature on the relationship between settler-states and Indigenous peoples has highlighted some important concepts relating to the need to recognise Indigenous sovereignty. There is a need for Indigenous students to see their cultures referenced throughout their learning and the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in cultural competence philosophy and praxis should guide stakeholders working in this field. There seems to be a general sense in the literature that the dominant national identities which have formed in English language settler-colonial nations default to a Eurocentric view of the world when it comes to thinking about the construction and distribution of knowledge in society. A process of de-centering Europe as the main point of reference for knowledge and national identities could assist in the reconstruction of institutions of higher learning that value Indigenous "ways of knowing, being and doing" (Sherwood, 2010). Indigenous sovereignty acted out through resistance to settler-colonialism should take centre stage through rights discourses in higher education as Indigenous people experience ongoing structural inequality since the imposition of European sovereignty on their countries. Therefore, the co-generation of knowledge that balance Indigenous worldviews with western ways of doing emerges as one possible solution for providing Indigenous and non-Indigenous students opportunities to engage with the complexity of settlercolonial life. The recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in the provision of education in settler-colonial countries has been shown to produce a more "ecological process of education that allows Indigenous people to become agents of transformation in their own social and cultural contexts" (McMurchy-Pilkington et al., 2008, p. 633). Australian universities must recognise Indigenous sovereignty throughout cultural competence philosophy and praxis and approach the co-generation of knowledge in higher education through intentional challenges to settler-colonial institutions that perpetuate Indigenous disadvantage.

#### **References**


Clark, A. (2008). *History's children: History wars in the classroom*. UNSW Press.


**Michael Johnston** is an accredited secondary school teacher in New South Wales. He is a non-Aboriginal person who has pursued education as one means by which to address settler-colonial historical injustice. He has co-led cultural competence workshops at the National Centre for Cultural Competence, and in 2018, he completed a Master of Human Rights at The University of Sydney. Michael currently resides in the Northern Territory, supporting Aboriginal selfdetermination at local government level.

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## **Chapter 5 On the Critical, Morally Driven, Self-reflective Agents of Change and Transformation: A Literature Review on Culturally Competent Leadership in Higher Education**

**Alessandra Pecci, Jack Frawley, and Tran Nguyen**

#### **Introduction**

Cultural competence philosophy and praxis was born out of healthcare provision in the 1980s. As such, the essence of care cannot be separated from cultural competence practice. Study of the concept has since been extended into the areas of business, the social sciences, and education (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, & Park, 2005; Ranzijn & Nolan, 2009; UA, 2011a, b). The provision of care in this last area, education, sets the tone and direction of our study. This is to remind educational organisations that they have a duty of care for and to their students, as well as their staff, and to succeed in doing so requires developing cultural competence dynamically and holistically at institutional, organisational and individual (personal and professional) levels.

This whole-of-institution approach includes, for example, "examining individual attitudes and practice in teaching as well as management, executive, policy and strategic commitment to revise and assess capacity to implement culturally competent teaching, learning, academic, research and employment spaces" (Taylor, Durey, Mulcock, Kickett, & Jones, 2015, p. 37). Moses (2014) echoes this call for multilevelled leadership required for transformational change, particularly as it relates to diversity and inclusion policies and practices. She contends that:

If the goal of embracing diversity in our colleges and universities is transformational change, then it is an institutional imperative and responsibility. It is everyone's job. While sustained leadership from the top of the leadership chart is critical, it is not enough. The job of diversity and transformation of the academy takes sustained and intentional efforts at all levels of the institution. (Moses, 2014, p. 94)

A. Pecci (B)

Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia e-mail: apecci@bond.edu.au

J. Frawley · T. Nguyen National Centre for Cultural Competence, the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_5

This literature review maps, examines and draws on existing scholarship that centres on the notion of *culturally competent leadership,* to situate its current application and prospective applicability to the higher education sector. Three fundamental research questions have guided this review: (a) what is meant by culturally competent leadership? (b) what does it look like in the higher education sector? and (c) is culturally competent leadership discourse, theory and practice reflected in the Australian experience and if so, how? This review therefore aims to chart theoretical concepts and discourse, as well as pedagogical trends and leadership initiatives in cultural competence in the higher education sector. Our findings reveal a corpus of pedagogical praxis, national and international, grounded in critical theory, which can guide and inform culturally competent leadership initiatives beyond and thereafter in higher education.

#### **Method**

This review is integrative in its approach, having sourced predominantly qualitative research findings and, to a lesser extent, quantitative research. The review draws primarily from the literature in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA where cultural competence discourse, theory and practice are most prominent and prolific. The increased attention paid to cultural competence in those countries can be attributed to their shared histories as settler-colonial societies (Belich, 2009; Veracini, 2011). We pay attention to the salient notions in culturally competent leadership and its many interpretations and designations, in the higher education sector. The review covers peer-reviewed journals, books and book chapters, and non-peerreviewed articles. As culturally competent leadership is still an under-researched area, the review also examines the grey literature, including dissertations, government reports and frameworks, and conference papers. Literature was sourced electronically from various academic research databases, including the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Google Scholar, AEI-ATSIS (Informit), Expanded Academic, ProQuest and Theses Global.

Mindful of the varying concepts often associated with cultural competence (Burchum, 2002), we anticipated the concept of *culturally competent leadership* would constrain our search and limit our results. A preliminary search validated our prediction, with less than half a dozen items resulting. The choice of search terms thus needed to be expanded to include the breadth of terms associated with cultural competence, including *cultural capability*, *cultural responsiveness*, *cultural intelligence*, and *cultural proficiency*. The review then expanded the search terms further to include the *leadership* denomination, hence *culturally capable leadership*, *culturally responsive leadership*, *culturally intelligent leadership*, *strategic diversity leadership* and *culturally proficient leadership.* Our refined search terms and subsequent review revealed an additional set of concepts, namely *diversity leadership*, *transformative leadership*, *moral leadership, intercultural leadership* and *applied critical leadership*, which have been included as part of this review.

We begin by mapping and examining the range of designations used in scholarship, mainly from the USA, Canada and New Zealand that describe leadership in the cultural competence space in higher education. This responds to our first two research questions by providing an overview of prominent theory and discourse and bringing to light the binding thread of common attributes, behaviours, knowledge and skills seen to be fundamental to the practice of culturally competent leadership in educational settings. This review then moves to cultural competence in Australian higher education, providing the backdrop needed to address our third and final research question. We set the context by exploring the rationale for cultural change within Australian universities, and how the higher education sector has heeded the call for embedding cultural competence. The review then presents distinctly Australian voices representing scholarship and exemplary practice of cultural competence in local higher education contexts, which are presented as leadership initiatives in their own right, irrespective of whether these initiatives self-ascribe the term "leadership." We then briefly present points of tension and contention in Australian scholarship around cultural competence initiatives, in an attempt to bring to light the burgeoning nature of this field of research and practice in Australian higher education, and underscore the contributions of home-grown, Australian voices to the cultural competence and culturally competent leadership discourse. We conclude by contemplating opportunities for continued scholarly debate and practice, moving forward.

#### **Culturally Competent Leadership Discourse: A Cartography of Sorts**

We noted above that as a result of the varying conceptual associations of the term "cultural competence," it was anticipated that a proportionally equal variety would be reflected in associations with the term and concept of "culturally competent leadership." Following is a summary list of the wide range of designations for culturally competent leadership featuring in the scholarship consulted, which validates our point:


Our review of the literature reveals that, despite the diverse and varied nature of designations given to the notion of leading in a culturally competent way, leadership in this space implies an underlying set of attributes, skills and behaviours, as well as knowledge, that run across, and are foundational to, all terms encountered as part of our review. Chun and Evans (2016) observe from the US higher education context that the continued dominance of white, male, heterosexual perspectives has failed to foster a representative bureaucracy that is responsive to the need of diverse students. The body of scholarship consulted posits that leadership in this space equates to courage, advocacy for social justice and human rights, and a willingness and ability for reflexive practice and self-awareness. Culturally competent leaders work to identify, transform and eradicate systems that generate inequity, disparity and social injustice; for example, culturally competent leaders in higher education settings display characteristics of "civility, ethical behaviour, data-driven decision-making and cultural sensitivity" (Thompson et al., 2017, p. 79); and Dantley and Green (2015, p. 821) argue that "educational leadership must contend with and embrace the call to engage notions of social justice, academic achievement, accountability, community and cultural change."

Importantly, leadership in this space has an explicit moral dimension. To lead within a culturally competent framework requires leaders who develop a more explicit moral literacy (Bezzina & Tuana, 2014) concerning situations in which their organisations engage in cultural change. This requires leaders who are capable of exploring their sense of moral purpose in their work through critical reflection, appreciating the importance of culture in leading ethically, and understanding the power of moral purpose as a mobiliser of practice. This ability and willingness to mobilise underpin the notions of agency in culturally competent leadership, and that "leadership is not based on a title; indeed, one can be a change agent without being the person with the label of leader" (Komives & Wagner, 2016, p. 401). Adserias, Charleston, & Jackson's (2017) review of literature on diversity leadership similarly concludes, and citing Birnbaum (1992, p. 151): "presidents are not the only source of leadership [in implementing diversity agendas]", neither can they shoulder the burden of cultural change, alone. Adserias et al. (2017) further underscore, and citing Kezar, Bertram Gallant, and Lester (2011, p. 147), there is a need for faculty and grassroots leadership initiatives to be strategically "aligned with academic culture and institutional methods" in that this allows for "grassroots leaders to operate under the radar".

This review, therefore, positions culturally competent leadership in the values category of leadership theory, otherwise referred to as authentic leadership, which is "knowledge-based, values informed" and requires "professionally effective, ethically sound, and consciously reflective practices" in educational administration (Begley, 2001, p. 354). What has also been evident in reviewing the scholarship on culturally competent leadership in higher education is the salience of critical theory, of diversity and inclusion, and of equity and access discourse. Critical theory is defined as "a form of theorization motivated by a deep concern to overcome social injustice and the establishment of more just social conditions" (Kemmis, 2006, p. 125). Jurgen Habermas is credited with underscoring the importance of reflexivity and critical selfreflection in broader reflective critique practices and processes. A recurring message across the literature consulted is that educational leaders in this space need to commit to critical conversations around the historical, social and material legacies of colonial practices, if they wish to enact systemic change and transformation. Shultz and Viczko (2016, p. 2) note, for example, that even higher education institutions "have not escaped this [colonial] legacy, and the durability of issues and intersections of race, gender, and class violence are evident in our organisations." On the criticality of the systems that perpetuate longstanding injustices, López (2016, p. 20) asserts that "educational leaders who ground their work in critical perspectives seek to create social change by challenging the status quo and systems of power that dominate and subjugate."

On the subject of power, Kezar's (2000, 2008) work offers valuable insights into how conditions of power relate to interpretations of leadership. She sees power as a "positioning force" within higher education institutions (2000, p. 724) and draws on positionality theory to help contextualise differing perspectives on and experiences of leadership in the higher education context. Understandings of power are based on experience, in other words on one's position. She notes how "human agency is conceptualised as important to understanding power relations: power conditions do not simply shape people, people shape power conditions and the resultant relations (Kondo, 1990). Thus, power conditions are negotiated and socially constructed: they can be transformed. They are not a static force…" (2000, p. 727). She also explores the relationship of power conditions to the ways in which individuals construct and engage with leadership. Kezar's 2000 study concludes how power conditions are closely tied to the particular history of a campus and the individual background of individuals and asserts that positionality theory offers an insightful means to better understand leadership, and leadership potential in higher education contexts.

Kezar's later (2008) work highlighted the nature of politics in higher education institutions and explored the politics surrounding transformational change issues such as diversity. She notes how the corporatisation and commercialisation of universities have resulted in the creation of interest groups, in turn creating a more political and politicized environment on campus, whereby the wide range of interest groups compete for resources, for a voice, for space. She identifies politics (comprised of conflict, resistance and competing values—p. 411) as that which thwarts transformation and change efforts. Kezar ultimately draws on political theory as a framework for understanding how political strategies (such as mapping the political terrain, coalition building and developing advocates/allies, persuasion, bargaining/negotiation, mediation and persistence) can aid in overcoming barriers to transformation and change.

The importance of critical approaches to leadership in educational settings is also underscored by Beachum (2011), who provides a summary of the practices, skills and attributes of culturally responsive leadership as follows:


Johnson and Fuller (2014, p. 1), similarly to Beachum (2011), contend that culturally responsive leaders place emphasis on "developing a critical consciousness among both students and faculty to challenge inequities in the larger society." Similarly, Mansfield and Jean-Marie (2015) argue that change and transformation require raising the "critical consciousness" of members of higher education institutions, in so far as "the change begins within us to choose to develop into transformational and critical leaders who can serve the needs of a diverse populace by serving as a voice for historically underserved communities" (Cruz, 2015, Epilogue).

The literature reviewed also identifies mindfulness, critical self-reflection and the importance of undertaking journeys of self-development as foundational practices, skills and attributes that enable culturally competent leadership. López (2016) notes that culturally responsive leadership demands "courage, taking risks, journeying, dealing with tensions, developing agency, and deep critical reflection" and that "critical leadership begins with examination of self" (p. 23). A sense of self, self-awareness and mindfulness are, as Tuleja (2014) notes, "often referred to as the reflective practice" (pp. 7–8). Day (2000, p. 123) similarly contends that successful educational leaders engage in a range of reflective practices and that effective leadership is "as much about developing the self as it is about capacity building in others and such effective leadership requires an intelligent head and an intelligent heart."

Terrell and Lindsey (2008, p. 4) support calls for "embracing leadership as a very personal journey of commitment and vision," with a focus on reflective practice. The authors contend that "culturally proficient leadership is distinguished from other leadership approaches in that it is anchored in the belief that a leader must clearly understand one's own assumptions, beliefs, and values about people and cultures different from one's self in order to be effective in cross-cultural settings" (2008, p. 4). Guerra and Pazey (2016) reaffirm the primacy of self-examination and assessment in the cultural competence journey, noting that:

If we have not examined our own assumptions, beliefs, biases about race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, class, dis/ability, and other forms of diversity, how can we in turn effectively prepare aspiring leaders to lead for social justice? …. We must model the type of leadership within our own organizations that we expect our graduates to create. (p. 1752)

Terrell and Lindsey (2008) identify specific attributes and skills of the culturally proficient leader, including a commitment to lifelong learning and critical selfreflection, and propose constructing cultural autobiographies as a way of generating a sense of self and self-awareness. hooks [*sic*] (2010) similarly argues that understanding our biographies along the lines of social class, ethnicity, gender and ability can help us to begin to name and expose the norms of cultural practice that we live, and which have shaped our dispositions. Cooper et al. (2011) also discuss the importance of constructing cultural autobiographies as a way of examining individual dispositions about, and experiences with, diversity. Meanwhile, Damon (2013) proposes what he terms as "the diversity idea framework", as this framework, he argues, would enable educational leaders to develop the type of cultural intelligence needed to become strategic diversity leaders.

Complementing the skills, attributes and behaviours required to lead for transformation and change, Horsford, Grosland, and Gunn (2011) further single out knowledge of political, social and historical contexts, as do Su and Wood (2017, p. 2), who refer to notions of historicity and situational specificity as central to understandings of leadership for cultural change and transformation in higher education. Knowledge of an institution's organisational culture is also seen to be critical for leadership and advocacy efforts in higher education. To this end, Komives and Wagner (2016) warn that change agents need to understand the context in which they are practising leadership, and gain knowledge about their organisation and where they and their group are situated within the organisation. Ottmann (2009, p. 5) similarly warns that it is "essential for leadership to have an in-depth understanding of organisational culture, as understanding at this level can provide leaders with ideas that would contribute to the success for a change initiative."

Critical scholars also call for an examination and understanding of the experiences of both students and staff who endure inequities and discrimination, based on any one dimension or combined dimensions of their identities (see, e.g., Chin & Trimble, 2014; Chin et al., 2016; Cooper et al., 2011; Eagly & Chin, 2010; Jones & McEwen, 2000; Zavala & Tran, 2016). Making language, gender and social class visible topics for discussion, as Terrell and Lindsey (2008) propose, begins to normalise both the act and intent in regard to uncovering disparities, discrimination and injustices, in a safe space. In a similar strain, Santamaría & Santamaría (2016), and Santamaría (2014), draw on intersectionality discourse and strengths-based approaches to educational leadership in proposing the notion of applied critical leadership, which manifests in practice when:

an educational leader is able to analyse and think more deeply about their practice, asking questions such as, "in what ways does my identity enhance my ability to see, understand, or consider alternate perspectives in my leadership practice?" This conceptualization pushes educational leaders' thinking about leadership for social justice toward thinking about leadership practice or qualities that result in social justice and educational equity. (Santamaría, 2014, p. 357)

Santamaría & Santamaría (2016) identify a number of common practices among applied critical leaders which include, but are not limited to, the following:


Transformative leadership, which foregrounds critical theory in its discourse, focuses on systemic change and criticality towards the systems that misuse power and privilege to perpetuate disparity, inequity and injustice. As Halualani and Nakayama (2010) contend, the intercultural field is no longer limited to the notion of norms, values and behaviours; instead, culture should now be understood as a site of struggle and contestation. Accordingly, Weiner (2003) posits that transformative leaders must learn to work in dominant structures of power and authority to exercise effective oppositional power, resistance and activism, and moral courage to persist. Similarly, Marbley et al. (2015, p. 46) note, "Transformative leadership calls for an overhauling and revolutionising of human and social systems and the need to deconstruct and reconstruct privileged frameworks to ones that are more equitable and culturally grounded." Shields draws on Burns' (1978) seminal work on transactional and transformational leadership, in which he highlights the moral and ethical dimensions of leadership as intrinsic components of leadership and leading. Shields (2010) draws inspiration from Freire's (1970, 1998) work on transformative ideals in education and his calls for personal and dialogic relationships to support education—accordingly, in the absence of such relationships, education serves to "deform rather than to transform" (Shields, 2010, p. 566). Shields (2010, p. 559) also contends that transformative leadership theory can guide the practice of educational leaders who want to affect both educational and broader social change, in that it speaks to matters of justice and democracy, and critiques inequitable practices.

Similarly, and in their review of transformational leadership literature, Adserias et al. (2017, p. 319) underscore Aguirre and Martinez's (2002, 2006) and Tierney's (1989) assertion that transformational approaches to leadership "hold potential for both understanding and conceptualizing the transformative changes necessary to ameliorate systemic oppressions, such as those based on race, ethnicity, gender, and other identities that are socially marginalized". Adserias et al. (2017, p. 319) further highlight Aguirre and Martinez's (2002, 2006) claim that transformational leadership indeed has "greater potential for leading the type of large-scale, longterm organizational, and cultural changes" required by the diversity agenda in higher education contexts. Adserias et al.'s review (p. 319) further emphasises Bass and Riggio's (2006) work for its identification of four distinct tactics transformational leaders employ, namely: (a) idealized influence (lead by example); (b) inspirational motivation; (c) intellectual stimulation (inspire and support creative thinking and problem solving); and (d) individualized consideration (coaching and mentoring).

Quantz et al. (1991) contend that transformative leadership "requires a language of critique and possibility" (Quantz et al., 1991, p. 105), and that a "transformative leader must introduce the mechanisms necessary for various groups to begin conversations around issues of emancipation and domination" (Quantz et al., 1991, p. 112), reaffirming the primacy of agency in bringing about cultural change and transformation. On this note, Foster (1986) contends that leadership "must be critically educative; it can not only look at the conditions in which we live, but it must also decide how to change them" (Foster, 1986, p. 185). Likewise, López (2016, p. 26) describes agency as "carving out opportunities within our educational contexts to act in collaboration with others or even sometimes alone. …. Agency is also about building community with others." For Komives and Wagner (2016, p. 399) the change agent is "a person committed to … lifelong learning, and relationships," and leadership that aims to create change is communal in its nature.

Learning is hence integral to change agency; and critical self-reflection, undertaken individually or collectively, is seen to offer transformative learning opportunities which form part of the journey to becoming a culturally competent leader. A commitment to transformative learning through, for example, communities of practice, is seen to create the conditions needed for learning to learn which is, in turn, a foundational and critical factor in leading for transformation and change. O'Sullivan (2003, p. 328) describes transformative learning as a process that involves:

a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world. Such a shift involves our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race, and gender, our body awareness; … and our sense of possibilities for social justice, peace, and personal joy.

Shields (2010, p. 565) draws on Mezirow's (1991, 1996) transformative learning theory in asserting that "individual learning prompted by self-reflection [is] a tool for deep and lasting personal change." Taylor (2006) and Davis (2006) have since expanded the concept to highlight the need to disrupt and dissect knowledge frameworks and prior learning, as well as acknowledge privileges and power associated with our own culture or other cultures. Cook-Sather and Felten (2017) further this notion by proposing to create spaces for students and educators to interact and learn from each other through an ethic of reciprocity, which "requires a notion of collective responsibility for education—a community rather than only an individualistic approach that deepens the humanity of all involved" (Cook-Sather & Felten, 2017, p. 182). The authors also draw on Nixon's (2012) concept of the "pedagogized university," which puts mutual respect and reciprocity at the heart of the student–teacher interaction and commits to exploring emergent ideas and differences in perspectives and questioning what is known. Cook-Sather and Felten (2017) support earlier calls (Barr & Tagg, 1995) for a shift from the instructional paradigm to the learning paradigm in higher education, noting the goal is "not to transfer knowledge but to create environments and experiences that bring students to discover and construct knowledge for themselves" (Cook-Sather & Felten, 2017, p. 4).

Communities of practice can be seen as fora for transformative learning and as conducive to both organisational and individual change and transformation. Ewen (2011) draws on Wenger's (2000) six elements seen to be integral to the evolution of an organisational learning strategy, and hence to a community of practice: events, leadership, connectivity, membership, projects and artefacts. Ewen (2011, p. 152) contends that, "cultural competence community of practice can have influence at multiple levels within an organisation … [as] … Its activities can have influence across both the actions and consequences, but it can also influence governing value and variables."

The mutual and reciprocal learning, enabled by and through communities of practice, creates opportunities to engage in group critical reflexive practice and can aid in creating a culture of trust and connection, which is fundamental to enlist allies in the drive for change and transformation. On this note, Chun and Evans (2016, p. 70) argue that transformational change "requires that a critical mass of individuals within the institution operate in new ways leading to the establishment of infrastructures that support learning and new norms and habits. Such large-scale changes in practice can be initiated by a small number of individuals." Guerra and Pazey (2016, p. 1754) also highlight the need to establish a strong foundation of trust and openness that would promote a "willingness to think and learn collectively and provide sufficient time for deep and in-depth conversations as vital components to the transformative learning process." Similarly, Cambron-McCabe (2003) advocates for meaningful conversations and behaviours that lead to "learning to learn" together, noting the pivotal role that deep, extended conversation plays in successful transformation and change initiatives at the organisational level. Eckel and Kezar (2003) and Kezar (2005) underscore the important role of leaders in facilitating the necessary structures and process through which higher education institution community members engage in learning.

Finally, leading for change and transformation also requires building partnerships and connecting with local communities. Cooper et al. (2011, p. 4), for example, promote action research by engaging communities as co-partners in education; this is seen as "critical for acknowledging, understanding, and accepting diverse ways of seeing, knowing, and doing." Dantley and Green (2015, p. 833) also contend that:

leadership preparation programs should become accountable to the … local community in which the university is located … departments should have a pulse on the educational, social, economic and political conditions of the schools and community in which their universities are located.

Given that cultural competence is relational, effective community engagement, relationship building and collaboration, and person-centred practice (Leotta, 2013) become defining features of cultural competence practice. The need for community engagement in the production of knowledge and scholarship has also been underscored by Kajner (2016, p. 175), who views a reconceptualisation of scholarship (i.e., of community-engaged scholarship) as paramount for universities in regaining relevancy and legitimacy. In the same vein, Wimmer (2016) reinforces the importance of leveraging community knowledge, in his case, Indigenous community knowledge for scholarship, noting that knowledge from the community is as valuable and of consequence as that contained in the academy. He highlights the need for the academy to reflect on and query the relevance, reciprocity, respect and responsibility of its interactions and relationships with Indigenous communities, sharing a cautionary position with scholars in the Australian academy, as we will explore in this chapter.

#### **Cultural Competence in the Australian Academy: Setting the Context**

We have thus far reviewed and discussed the literature and scholarship on culturally competent leadership from several comparator countries, namely New Zealand, USA and Canada. Although Australian scholarship on culturally competent *leadership* in higher education is not prolific, compared to the USA, Canada or New Zealand, scholarly research and debate on cultural competence strategies, methodologies and approaches in higher education abound. Past and existing examples of institutional, organisational and pedagogical approaches to developing culturally competent attributes, skills, behaviours and policies in Australia can be viewed as leadership initiatives in their own right, although they have not necessarily been termed as such. It is also evident that the salient discourses and theories emerging from the literature reviewed thus far are reflected in scholarship emerging from Australia. At the same time, distinctive Australian voices are contributing to this body of scholarship, reflecting the kind of historicity and situational specificity to which Su and Wood (2017) refer. Given the distinct and discrete histories that have impacted contemporary racial, ethnic, cultural and social relations across the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia—and their legacies that continue to play out in higher education contexts—experiences differ widely, as do the strategies, methodologies and initiatives aimed at developing cultural competence at the dynamic and holistic levels, explored previously in this chapter.

In Australia, several frameworks that have been developed in the public domain, which address cultural competence/capabilities, have lessons for the academy. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Framework (CoA, 2015), for example, highlights three domains of cultural capability: *knowing*, *doing* and *being*. Knowing is about "knowing and understanding history, culture, customs and beliefs"; doing is "culturally appropriate action and behaviour"; and being is about "awareness, authenticity and openness to examining one's own values and beliefs." To develop cultural capabilities requires "continuous development and practice in all three domains, a continuous process of learning" (CoA, 2015, p. 3). The framework views leadership within the context of cultural capability as "a practice rather than a position … [that] … can be practised at all levels … [and is] … important in setting direction and embedding culture."

The *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (UA, 2011a, b) has been instrumental in providing guidance and direction on best practice strategies, approaches and methodologies for embedding cultural competence across higher education institutions. UA sees the role of universities as agents of change and committed to leading for transformation and cultural change. In Australia, cultural competence in higher education cannot be separated from social justice, human rights, equity, equal opportunity and reconciliation discourse as it relates to Australia's First Nations peoples and, hence, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff alike. UA (2011b, p. 3) defines Indigenous cultural competence as follows.

Student and staff knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Australian cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of Indigenous protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in Indigenous contexts congruent to the expectations of Indigenous Australian peoples … [and] the ability to critically reflect on one's own culture and professional paradigms in order to understand its cultural limitations and effect positive change.

Furthermore, Indigenous cultural competence requires "effective and inclusive policies and procedures, monitoring mechanisms and allocation of sufficient resources to foster culturally competent behaviour and practice at all levels of the institution" (UA, 2011b, p. 48). Miralles and Migliorino's (2005) work has served to inform Universities Australia's (UA) directives for embedding cultural competence at the institutional level, which require interventions in all the moving parts that comprise an institution, notably:


Leadership in all of the domains (institutional, organisational, professional and individual) is seen as fundamental to bringing about the cultural change being called for. There is undoubtedly no blueprint for how this should be done; nor, as the Australian landscape demonstrates, is it a case for a "one size fits all" approach. Su and Wood's (2017) notions of historicity and situational specificity certainly ring true in the Australian higher education context in that, as we will see in this chapter, variables such as organisational culture, institutional history and local (historical, social, political) realities determine the nature, scope and trajectory of strategies and approaches for creating cultural change.

#### **Home-Grown Cultural Competence Journeys: Theory and Practice from the Field**

There certainly exists rigorous scholarly debate in Australia around what makes for effective Indigenous cultural competence methodologies in the academy. As we have seen from UA's directives, methodologies can vary from Indigenising the curriculum and embedding Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) in course content; to creating safe spaces and enhancing partnerships with local Indigenous communities to inform research methodologies and desired research outputs, and make research of relevance, consequence and benefit to the communities which it claims to serve. The myriad of practices being employed are indicative of innovation, as much as the need for local responses to local needs and circumstances. Echoing the calls of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Framework (CoA, 2015) to embrace Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, and UA's (2011b) call for IKs in the academy, a number of scholars and practitioners are advocating for greater presence of IKs in higher education. However, there exist divergences on how this approach could be best implemented, which is explored later in this chapter.

There appears to be general agreement that there is a powerful transformative element to pedagogy that is inclusive of diverse ways of knowing, being and doing. Acton, Salter, Lenoy, & Stevenson (2017, p. 7), for example, discuss the notion of transformative pedagogy at length and highlight the importance of a three-tiered approach that would enable deep and meaningful transformation:


Calma's assertion that "tertiary education institutions exercise cultural leadership when they offer courses that are enriched by Indigenous Knowledges and perspectives" (Calma, 2006) encapsulates some of the key preconditions to leading in a culturally competent way in the Australian higher education sector. These include embedding Indigenous epistemological, ontological and axiological perspectives and standpoints in existing curricula as part of broader social justice, equity and access, and human rights agendas. The "Bradley Review" (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008) was instrumental in underscoring the value of IKs in the academy, as well as the need for a particular Indigenous graduate attribute (Frawley, 2017). The "Behrendt Review" (Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012, p. 65) reiterated the Bradley Review's calls, noting that "Indigenous Knowledge, translated into practical curriculum, teaching practices, and graduate attributes, makes important contributions to helping professionals meet the needs of Indigenous communities."

In articulating the case for embedding Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in the academy as a fundamental step towards cultural change, scholars such as Sherwood & Russell-Mundine (2017, p. 136) argue that "Western knowledge systems [have] dictated what is considered to be worth knowing within their institutions and silenced the voices and knowledge of those they have managed to construct as the other." Battiste (2002, p. 5) similarly contends that "Indigenous knowledge fills the ethical and knowledge gaps in Eurocentric education, research, and scholarship." Sherwood (2010, p. 124) further argues that "reclaiming Indigenous knowledge systems is paramount to our healing and wellbeing and offers the essence of who we are as peoples."

Martin, Nakata, Nakata, & Day (2017, p. 1165) consider existing "sociological approaches" to pedagogy in educational contexts, underscoring the diversity of theory, practice and praxis within the Australian educational landscape, as well as the contested nature of these approaches. The authors make specific reference to "two way" or "both ways" learning, of which interculturalism (see Frawley et al. 2010, 2012) is an example, and which is concerned with the intersection and linking of cultural "worlds"; the "space" in which the overlap occurs; and the knowledge that informs this space. Frawley et al. (2010) note that the development of an intercultural identity requires leaders in both cultures to acknowledge the skills, language, knowledge, concepts and understanding from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal knowledge systems, whereas interculturalism focuses attention on reciprocity and mutual obligation in the areas of curriculum, knowledge, policies and power.

Citing May and Sleeter's (2010) work, Martin et al. (2017) note that multicultural education has informed the development of different pedagogical approaches in Australia, with strong parallels to critical pedagogy, which in itself includes theoretical orientations such as Indigenous standpoint theory, feminist theory, Marxism and CRT. Decolonising pedagogies are also singled out by Martin et al. (2017) who note that as an emergent and growing agenda, decolonial education secures the incorporation of IKs and practices in the higher education curriculum. Moreover, Grote (2010, p. 2 48) notes that scholars promote the use of CRT to "undergird teaching and learning in order to challenge students' dominant epistemological and ontological beliefs about themselves, and the world they share with Aboriginal peoples." Nakata, Nakata, Keech, and Bolt (2012, p. 124) further contend that critical theory's "great attraction lies in its promise of overcoming "dominant" power relations and delivering "empowerment" to Indigenous people on the ground in the form of practical action in Indigenous interests."

Decolonisation approaches to education have indeed been advocated for, and implemented by, several Indigenous academics and educational practitioners across Australia. As Nakata et al. (2012) note, the synergies with Latin American decolonising approaches, drawn from the work of Freire (1970),Macedo et al. (1999), Mignolo (2007) and De Lissovoy (2010), are evident in Australian approaches. As another example of decolonising pedagogy, we turn to Sherwood, Keech, Keenan, and Kelly's (2011) account of their students' experiences of the "Introduction to Indigenous Cultures: Balancing Worldviews" course. In tracing the decolonisation approach employed and highlighting the centrality of Indigenous relational pedagogy to the course, Sherwood et al. (2011) note:

shifting the space from a dominant colonised space to a space engaging the richness of Indigenous Knowledges, pedagogies, values and protocols was going to prove tricky. Learning in relation to Indigenous ways of knowing encapsulates balance, deep listening and reciprocity. (p. 193)

Moreover, "the task of decolonising education requires multilateral processes of understanding and unpacking the central assumptions of domination, patriarchy, racism, and ethnocentrism that continue to glue the academy's privileges and place" (Battiste et al. 2002, cited in Sherwood et al., 2011, p. 193). The methodology employed in researching and collecting data of student experiences of the course was the Collaborative Community Participatory Action Research method (Sherwood, 2010, 2013; Sherwood, Lighton, Dundas, French, Link-Gordon, Smith, & Anthony, 2015). This is a "mixed methodological approach inclusive of critical cultural Indigenous protocols" (Sherwood et al., 2011, p. 194) involving storytelling as a data collection approach and focused on reflective and pragmatic action directed to solving problems identified by the collaborative community.

There exist nonetheless gaps in current research on IKs in higher education curricula. Acton et al. (2017) contend that while much of the research in the IKs area has been on research methodologies and epistemologies (Smith, 1999, cited in Acton et al., p. 6), research on Indigenous pedagogies and teaching methodologies is less prolific. The authors assert that adoption of Indigenous pedagogies across Australian university contexts remains inconsistent and understudied, although there are notable efforts and approaches aimed at exploring "the cultural interface of plural ontologies and epistemologies" (Acton et al., 2017, p. 7) such as storytelling, modelling, yarning circles and experiential learning (Acton et al., 2017, p. 10). Sherwood and Russell-Mundine (2017, p. 9) discuss the range of pedagogical models The University of Sydney's National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) employs. These include the Collaborative Community Participatory Action Research method, modelling Indigenous pedagogies with academic peers and embedding these in the NCCC's resources; in addition to developing a specific focus on wellbeing, sense of self and relational learning; growing knowledge about culturally safe spaces; and developing strategies for delivering these spaces throughout the University. In many senses, the NCCC is "developing new ways of working that are not typical of academic environments" (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017, p. 9).

#### **Theory and Practice in Australia: Tensions and Contentions**

Our investigation of theory and practice in Australia reveals tensions and contentions in regard to cultural competence best practice in the higher education sector and, for example, the very concept of IKs, which we explore in this section. Notwithstanding these tensions, rigorous scholarly debate has identified gaps and limitations in both research and praxis, which bodes well for the future design of strategies, methodologies, and pedagogies aimed at cultural change and transformation.

As previously discussed, embedding IKs in the curriculum is seen to be a fundamental step towards enacting cultural change and transformation. Exactly which IKs to embed and how to embed them are points of contention. Nakata (2004) believes that "the whole area of Indigenous knowledge is a contentious one" (p. 19). "Plonking" Indigenous content into the curriculum, as Nakata describes it (2007, p. 8), will not achieve the fundamental systemic transformation of graduates and institutions that is being called for. Moreover, according to Nakata (2007, p. 9), the manner in which IKs are documented and handled is also problematic in that:

disintegrations and transformations occur when it is redistributed across Western categories of classification, when it is managed in databases via technologies that have been developed in ways that suit the hierarchies, linearity, abstraction and objectification of Western knowledge—all of which are the antithesis of Indigenous knowledge traditions and technologies.

Acton et al. (2017) echo Nakata's (2007) warning that embedding IKs across educational policy, curriculum and pedagogy remains a problematic, complicated, contested and contentious affair that requires more than a simple injection of these knowledges. They underscore the need to be cautious in theorising Indigenous ways of knowing in that localised, and not universalised, articulations need to be accounted for. As the authors note, it is imperative to acknowledge the "diverse and unique knowledge frameworks, values and philosophies of both convergent and divergent groups and peoples that are distinct from Western knowledge systems" (Acton et al., 2017, p. 5), and that are hence situated, plural and reflexive in their relationality.

Grande (2008) warns of the limitations of critical pedagogic praxis, despite the relevance of critical approaches to both students and educators in need of "pedagogies of disruption, intervention, collectivity, hope and possibility," in that they are "insufficient without an awareness of the tensions and spaces between Western and Indigenous 'thought-worlds'" (Grande, 2008, cited in Acton et al., 2017, p. 11). The issue here is that critical pedagogy, and its emphasis on systematic interrogation, implicitly privileges scientific and rational ways of knowing, being and doing, which are rooted in the western paradigm. To this end, the "root constructs of democratization, subjectivity, and property are all defined through western frames of reference that presume the individual as the primary subjects of 'rights' and social status" (Grande, 2008, cited in Acton et al., 2017, p. 11). However, this is considered problematic and in opposition to Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

An additional and notable object of critique identified in the scholarship relates to the employment of western "quality indicators" to learning and teaching for Indigenous content. Bullen and Flavell (2017, p. 583), for example, argue this demonstrates an "innate lack of institutional understanding of the complexities of teaching interculturally and the 'unlearning' which needs to occur for students to become critically self-reflexive and develop a capacity for ontological pluralism (essential for graduate intercultural capability)." The authors are critical of the entrepreneurial and measured university, which employs a "transactional approach" to embedding IKs into university courses which is deemed as a continuation of epistemic violence on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The transactional approach is underpinned by the "Western model of exchange epitomised by the corporate university: there has been no transformation or decolonisation of knowledges, rather a simplistic exchange that cannot generate new knowledge to transform Indigenous social conditions" (Nakata et al., 2012, p. 121, cited in Bullen & Flavell, 2017, p. 588). Students themselves are limited in their cultural competence journey by the transactional nature of their studies and as consumers. As the authors note, "the cultural interface needs to be unsettling if transformation is to be achieved. However, challenging students and engaging with concepts such as white privilege does not necessarily result in satisfied customers" (Bullen & Flavell, 2017, p. 588). The authors ultimately contend that new measures of learning and teaching "quality" must be developed. Additionally, more research is required to understand how students learn Indigenous content, which would result in greater clarity around what indicators could predict the prospect of change and transformation. Ultimately, though, "in a university with meaningful cultural capability, local Elders would determine whether graduates are practice-ready to work with community" (Bullen & Flavell, 2017, pp. 592–593).

#### **Conclusion**

This review has sought to map and examine the range of designations used in scholarship, mainly from the USA, Canada and New Zealand, that describe leadership in the cultural competence space in higher education settings. We responded to our first two research questions by providing an overview of prominent theory and discourse, bringing to light the binding thread of common attributes, behaviours, knowledge and skills seen to be fundamental to the practice of culturally competent leadership in educational settings. We then shifted our attention to cultural competence in Australian higher education, providing the backdrop needed to address our third and final research question. We set the context by exploring the rationale for cultural change within Australian universities, and the ways in which the higher education sector has heeded the call for embedding cultural competence. We then presented distinctly Australian voices, scholarship and exemplary practice of cultural competence in local higher education contexts, seen to be leadership initiatives in their own right—irrespective of whether these are coined explicitly as "leadership" initiatives. The review then briefly presented points of tension and contention in Australian scholarship around cultural competence initiatives, in an attempt to highlight the burgeoning nature of this field of research and practice in Australian higher education and underscore the contributions of home-grown Australian voices to cultural competence and culturally competent leadership discourse.

The literature consulted for this review has indicated that if the vision of change and transformation is to be realised, the leadership required of the academy and all its constituents is a leadership that is transformative, values-driven, moral, and critically self-reflective and purposeful, in so far as its efforts are geared towards creating a more socially just and equitable university community. This review demonstrates that there is no shortage of scholarly debate or academic and professional praxis in Australian higher education drives for cultural competence, and leadership efforts in this space are plentiful, albeit discrete and unique to local settings. There remains room for more research on the impact and outcomes of past and existing initiatives, particularly pedagogical strategies, that could in turn inform future cultural competence models, including leadership professional development programs. There also remains room for more debate around quality measures and, more broadly, around establishing appropriate measurement frameworks that could assess the impact of initiatives in this space. Reconciling concepts of "quality" and "metrics" may prove challenging, particularly when the object of study and measurement is not a single output or product, but the continuous journey of learning that cultural competence represents.

#### **References**


Freire, P. (1970). *Pedagogy of the oppressed*. New York, NY: Continuum International.


**Alessandra Pecci** is currently a lecturer and tutor in International Relations, Communications, and Cultural Studies at Bond University. She was formerly an associate lecturer at the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. Alessandra is undertaking her PhD at Bond University. Her doctoral research explores the phenomenon of trans-national and cross-border practicing communities of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), and contemplates how UNESCO's definition of ICH 'community' translates to practitioners beyond the homeland of an ICH element.

**Jack Frawley** has a national and international profile as researcher, writer and educator in the areas of intercultural studies, education, history, leadership studies, and the arts. He has worked extensively as a consultant for program evaluation, research, and education-related projects, in Australian Aboriginal communities as well as in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia.

**Tran Nguyen** is Associate Lecturer at the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. She obtained a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Macquarie University. Tran's research interests include international migration, inter-ethnic relations, cultural competence, employment services, and organisational studies.

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## **Chapter 6 Beliefs, Events and Values Inventory Assessment of Global Identity: Implications and Applications for International, Cross-Cultural and Transformative Learning**

**Felix Wang, Kathleen Pait, Kris Acheson, Lee Sternberger, Renee Staton, and Craig N. Shealy**

#### **Introduction**

As global communities become more intertwined both technologically and socially, professionals in every field are expected to work with people from different backgrounds and thrive in multicultural settings. Indeed, the international labour market increasingly recognises the need for college graduates to start their professional careers equipped with diverse and open perspectives. Thus, institutions of higher education are under growing pressure from employers to prepare students to be culturally competent and globally minded citizens (Kehl & Morris, 2008; Trooboff, Vande Berg, & Rayman, 2008). Fortunately, colleges and universities have not shied away from recognising the importance of global engagement (Altbach & Knight, 2007). Institutions of higher education around the world are incorporating internationalisation efforts at home and abroad as key components of their strategic planning and curriculum. Due to intentional efforts to support and encourage such engagement, the number of students who participate in an internationalised educational experience during their college career is sharply increasing. In the USA, for example, according to the 2018 Open Doors Report of the Institute of International Education, "the number of international students in the United States surpassed one million for the third consecutive year, increasing by 1.5% to reach a new high of 1,094,792" (IIE, 2018).

F. Wang · K. Pait · L. Sternberger · R. Staton · C. N. Shealy (B) James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA e-mail: craigshealy@gmail.com

K. Acheson Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Although we are heartened by such trends—and fully support the purpose and goals of international, cross-cultural and transformative learning experiences (e.g. Altbach & Knight, 2007; Deardorff, 2016; Kehl & Morris, 2008; Mezirow, 1997; Taylor & Cranton, 2012; Trooboff et al., 2008)—our two decades of research strongly indicates that there is no basis for assuming that mere exposure to such "high impact" experiences will be demonstrably salutary for all people, and certainly not in the same way or for the same reasons. That is because the processes and outcomes of international, cross-cultural and transformative learning are determined by context interactions among a range of variables that include, but are not limited to, the learner, the instructor, the experience and other factors (Shealy, 2016; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

As such, a central proposition of the current study is that the impact of international, multicultural and transformative learning must be understood and measured at the level of identity, with all of its depth-based complexity. Although scholars have focused on the construct and development of identity for international students (Kim, 2012) and study abroad students (Hendershot & Sperandio, 2009), few have examined how the aetiology and structure of identity predispose our students to have differential inclinations and capacities to engage in, and benefit from, such learning experiences in the first place (Acheson, Dirkx, Wiley, Ullum, Kapadia, & Bhuyan, in press; Spaeth, Schwartz, Nayar, & Ma, 2016). Through research and understanding of identity's core aspects (e.g. our core needs and internalised beliefs about self, others and the larger world), we begin to understand why, how and under what circumstances "cultural competence" does or does not develop, to what degree, and for whom (Shealy, 2016). Indeed, considerable evidence suggests that we should not devise curricula and implement pedagogies that promote international, crosscultural and transformative learning unless and until we understand how and why our students experience self, others and the larger world as they do, because this affects every aspect of the learning process (e.g. Shealy, in press; Tabit, Legault, Ma, & Wan, 2016).

#### **Cultural Competence Means More Than Cultural Competence**

Implicit in the above perspective is the following empirically supported contention: it may be necessary, but is by no means sufficient, to include only putative measures of cultural competence to measure cultural competence. Why? Part of the problem is that cultural competence is operationalised according to a very wide array of terms, all of which purport to measure identical or related processes; for example, "intercultural development", "cultural humility", "cultural sensitivity", "ethnocentrism", "multiculturalism" and so on (Deardorff, 2016; Tabit et al., 2016). But the larger problem has to do with the fundamental complexities of being human, in that while we may all be cultural beings, we are not reducible only, or even primarily,


to our cultural-beingness. In fact, in terms of predictive validity, our relative degree of "cultural competence"—as measured, for example, by "Sociocultural Openness" and "Global Resonance" on the Beliefs, Events and Values Inventory (BEVI), the central instrument used in the current study—may not even be the best predictor of how we function within a course or programme that is explicitly designed to develop cultural competence (Wandschneider et al., 2015). Rather, other measurable human processes such as Emotional Attunement, Basic Openness, Religious Traditionalism or Self Awareness may, in fact, be more powerfully predictive of "how we do" or "what we learn" in learning experiences than instruments ostensibly designed to facilitate cultural competence (e.g. Giesing, 2017; Iyer, 2013; Tabit et al., 2016; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

Consider, for example, Table 6.1, which presents correlation matrix data to examine the relationship between Sociocultural Openness on the BEVI and other BEVI scales (noting that in this version of the BEVI, informed by exploratory factor analysis, items were allowed to load on different factors in order to help us understand the interrelationship among various scales on the BEVI). <sup>1</sup> What do such results indicate?

As Wandschneider et al. (2015) note, "individuals scoring high on Sociocultural Openness tend to endorse a worldview that may be characterized as liberal, progressive, accepting, culturally attuned, open, concerned, and globally oriented" (p. 172)—characteristics which are emblematic of "cultural competence" as it is generally understood (e.g. Deardorff, 2016; Tabit et al., 2016). From a review of these correlations in Table 6.1, however, most striking is the empirical fact that individuals who score highly on Sociocultural Openness:

<sup>1</sup>Note that a few scales from the EFA "long" version of the BEVI are differently titled from the current BEVI, which is based upon additional factor analytic and other analyses (e.g. *Basic Closedness* is now *Basic Openness*; *Socio*-*religious Traditionalism* is now *Religious Traditionalism*; *Hard Structure* is now *Self Certitude*; and *Divergent Determinism* is now *Basic Determinism*).


The fundamental point—and underlying rationale for this study—is that the concept of culture cannot be understood, and should not be measured, in unidimensional or face valid terms. Again, that is because our "cultural-beingness" is mediated and moderated—that is to say, influenced, shaped and predicted—not only by our beliefs, interests and competencies vis-à-vis different cultures, but by "process variables" such as one's capacity and inclination to experience emotion, or to wonder about self and others, as well as developmental and demographic variables, such as one's life history, ethnicity or gender (e.g. Tabit et al., 2016; Wandschneider et al., 2015). In short, if we really want to understand how and why we are similar and different in our cultural competencies, we have to take these measurable constructs, processes, variables and interactions into account. Ultimately, such complexities are codified within us at any given moment in time not just as our "competencies" cultural or otherwise—but in our fundamental understanding and experience of "why we are who we are", particularly in relation to others and the world at large, which leads us to the multifaceted construct of "global identity", the focus of this chapter.

#### **Global Identity in Theory, Research and Practice**

An important mission of higher education is to address real-life problems through teaching and learning (Keeling, 2006; Cortese, 2003). As Gacel-Ávila (2005) explains, universities should be "a key educational resource for training citizens with a critical perspective and the adequate preparation to work and live effectively and successfully in a global context" (p. 125). Examples of such efforts include integration of international and domestic students to enrich "all students learning experience and outcomes", as a model for global citizenship education (Sawir, 2013, p. 371). While the goal of institutions may be the measurement of international learning impact, due to the lack of availability of outcome-based data, institutions may only rely upon output-based data (e.g. the number of individuals studying abroad), which does not provide sufficient information to assess the impact of educational experiences or improve programme quality (Hudzik & Stohl, 2009). Complicating matters, assessment instruments only collect self-reported and opinion-based data (e.g. asking students if an internationalised learning experience positively impacted their academic engagement), which means that more substantive and compelling data—such as empirically verifiable learning processes and outcomes that illustrate the complex and interacting nature, form and depth of longitudinal change—simply are not measured.

Although internationalised learning experiences are associated with cognitive and emotional change, the larger literature tends to focus on *if* (or whether) change occurs, rather than examining deeper aspects, such as who we were in the first place, before we engaged in an internationalised educational experience, which interacts further with the experience itself to influence why we change, and to what degree, and under what circumstances. More specifically, international and multicultural education practitioners may focus on curricular and programme design as if such factors alone predicted outcomes. Missing in this assessment calculus is a basic understanding of identity—that is, who students are before they engage in international or multicultural learning programmes—as well as how such factors interact with and influence the results of the entire experience, and also the resulting postprogramme data (Wandschneider et al., 2015). For example, we seldom measure our students' core beliefs, values and life events which serve as the foundation for how they perceive and experience themselves, others and the larger world (Shealy, Sternberger, & Bhuyan, 2012). However, without a greater appreciation, understanding and assessment of student identity, at the core of which lies the potential for transformative change and learning, international and multicultural courses and programmes may remain desultory and superficial (Spaeth et al., 2016).

Identity is a complex construct because it lies within a dialectic between the structural and performative. Who we believe ourselves to be (avowal) and who others believe us to be (ascription) are functions of forces larger than ourselves and our own agency (Mendoza, Halualani, & Drzewiecka, 2002). This dialectic creates a dilemma for the term "identity" which may be invoked for a range of purposes, including selfunderstanding (particularistic categorical attributes such as ethnicity or gender); to emphasise cohesion among group members; to highlight aspects of the self that are foundational and unchanging; or, in more postmodern and post-structuralist ways, to highlight the intersubjective process of self-understanding, and the perspectives that emphasise how "self" may be, or become, fluid and fragmented (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000).

We conceptualise global identification as one of many expressive processes or functions of the human self and its narrative about itself, which we likewise understand to be our sense of identity. This conceptualisation allows us to acknowledge the power of unconscious and affectively mediated aspects of the self (e.g. our core needs), as well as our ability to reflect upon consciously accessible aspects of the self, as we try to understand who we are, and how and why we change as a result of specific experiences and across our lifetimes (e.g. Aronson, 2012; Ferrari & Sternberg, 1998; Harter, 1999; Leary & Tangney, 2012). By examining identity in this way, we shed light not only on the relatively stable structures of beliefs and values that have developed in response to the ways in which our needs have been met over the course of our lives to date, but also on how these systems morph over time in reaction to new experiences (Shealy, 2016; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

#### **Global Identity and the Beliefs, Events and Values Inventory**

Informed by the above theory and research, this study is a multifaceted attempt to examine global identity development in the context of internationalised educational experiences in order to provide recommendations for best practices in international, cross-cultural and transformative programmes and courses. The current study builds upon the work of a multi-year, multi-institution initiative called the Forum BEVI project which brought together thousands of students in the USA and internationally, to examine processes of learning, growth and development. The BEVI is well suited to this type of research and practice because it:


The construct of global identity is operationalised as an empirically and theoretically derived aggregate score from the BEVI; that is, we are using the Full Scale score on the BEVI as a proxy to represent what we mean by global identity (for more information about the Full Scale score, see the "Method" section below). By way of explanation, the Full Scale score represents or captures the "core essence" of what the BEVI measures, including:

basic openness; receptivity to different cultures, religions, and social practices; the tendency (or not) to stereotype in particular ways; self and emotional awareness; and preferred but implicit strategies for making sense of why "other" people and cultures "do what they do". Shealy (2005, p. 99)

As may be clear, then, based upon correlation matrix data (i.e. the statistical interrelationships among scales on a measure) and other statistical methods (e.g. factor analysis, structural equation modelling)—and informed by hundreds of analyses regarding how specific scales are predictive of, or by, a very wide range of formative variables (e.g. gender, ethnicity, education) and outcomes (e.g. grade point average, programme satisfaction)—we have a quite sophisticated understanding of who is, and is not, likely to have the capacity and inclination to engage with cultures that are different from their own (Shealy, 2016; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

Finally, from an analytic perspective, we focus on a new dataset from the BEVI in order to address the following research questions:


#### **Method**

For this particular study, we accessed a BEVI sample of *N* = 4926, which was collected between June 2013 and January 2016. Included in the dataset are participants at a number of higher education institutions who participated in the Forum BEVI project (Wandschneider et al., 2015). As in the original Forum BEVI project, participants were largely undergraduate students at the time of data collection. All were engaged in an internationalised educational experience, such as study abroad, a globalised course on campus or the hosting of an international student. With regard to the moderating variables of gender, ethnicity and country of origin in this study, the analysis included data from 2803 female respondents, 1909 male respondents and 62 respondents of unreported gender. A total of 2599 respondents self-identified as Caucasian and 2,175 identified as non-Caucasian; 3317 respondents were US citizens and 1,457 respondents were other nationalities. There were 4774 participants in total, and 152 participants were excluded from the final sample due to incomplete data (see


**Table 6.2** Sample results for Background–Domain Contrast on the BEVI

Table 6.2). (For additional information about the demographic characteristics of this sample, and the participants in the Forum BEVI project, see Wandschneider et al., 2015, pp. 156–157.)

The 17 scales of the BEVI are clustered under seven separate domains as follows: I. Formative Variables; II. Fulfilment of Core Needs; III. Tolerance of Disequilibrium; IV. Critical Thinking; V. Self Access; VI. Other Access; and VII. Global Access.

For each administration of the BEVI, a Full Scale score is also generated. To calculate the Full Scale score, 11 of the 17 scales are used. The reasons for including some scales but not others are both empirical, based on correlation matrices and factor analyses, and theoretical, in that inclusion of specific scales across various domains is supported by the EI model that undergirds the BEVI method (Shealy 2016).

Given the empirical and theoretical basis for development of the Full Scale score and its "High", "Medium" or "Low" Optimal derivatives, and in the context of the above discussion of the global identity construct, our analysis uses the BEVI Full Scale score as an indicator of global identity. Overall, a higher or lower score on each of these specific scales results in a higher or lower Full Scale score. For any given group who has taken the BEVI, the highest 30% of Full Scale scorers are understood, for interpretive purposes, as "High Optimal" scorers; the middle 40% of Full Scale scorers are understood as "Middle Optimal" scorers; and the lowest 30% of Full Scale scorers are understood as "Low Optimal" scorers.

The specific scales, as well as their directionality in terms of contributing to a higher or lower Full Scale score, are as follows, noting that in addition to the scale number and name, the designation of "higher" means that a higher score on this specific scale contributes to a higher Full Scale score, while the designation of "lower" means that a lower score on this specific scale contributes to a lower Full Scale score: Scale 3, Needs Fulfilment (Higher); Scale 5, Basic Openness (Higher); Scale 6, Self Certitude (Lower); Scale 7, Basic Determinism (Lower); Scale 10, Emotional Attunement (Higher); Scale 11, Self Awareness (Higher); Scale 13, Religious Traditionalism (Lower); Scale 14, Gender Traditionalism (Lower); Scale 15, Sociocultural Openness (Higher); Scale 16, Ecological Resonance (Higher); and Scale 17, Global Resonance (Higher).

Using the Full Scale score as our proxy for "global identity", we examine the relationship between high and low levels of global identity to three moderating (i.e. class or categorical) variables of gender, ethnicity and country of origin. According to Egan and Perry (2001), gender is the "quintessential element" of identity development since it governs all aspects of our lives including self-perception, interactions and relationships with others, and occupation and social status. Gender, one of the moderator variables we examine, demonstrably influences the exploration and reformulation of identity while engaging in international and culturally responsive learning experiences.

A second critical moderator for this study is ethnicity. In selecting this variable, we recognise the complementarity between ethnicity and race. While both are socially constructed, race may have greater connotations of biological difference whereas ethnicity explicitly references cultural differences (Betancourt & López, 1993). Moreover, since ethnicity is the term used by the BEVI in its collection of demographic data, that term is used for the current study.

Along with gender and ethnicity, we selected country of origin as our third moderating variable of particular interest for obvious reasons; that is, as we are studying the development of global identity, it stands to reason that it would be productive to compare and contrast individuals from different countries of origin. For many students, the act of exploring their national identity (i.e. their country of origin and its attendant culture) is among their most meaningful experiences while abroad (Dolby, 2004).

Overall, this methodological approach allows us to examine and understand how and to what degree these moderating variables are associated with differences among learners in general, and global identity in particular, as measured by the BEVI, even before the learning experience begins. Through this approach, one fundamental contribution such a study makes is illustrating why we must take individual and subgroup differences among our learners into account if we are to understand how "who they are" interacts with "what we do", to produce whatever degree of change we are ultimately able to observe and measure.

The tables and figures in the Results section below represent the Full Scale score comparisons between the highest and lowest 30%, which are referred to in figures and tables as "top" and "bottom" groups. This comparative technique is an analytic method known as the extreme groups approach (EGA) (Preacher, Rucker, MacCallum, & Nicewander, 2005). We selected the EGA to ensure that sample characteristics were sufficiently divergent to ascertain valid and reliable findings vis-a-vis the main research questions that comprise this study.

At the *macro*-*level of analysis*, we examine interactions between Full Scale scores and the moderators of gender, country of origin and ethnicity and then investigate mediating relationships for each moderator between the Full Scale score and specific individual BEVI scales. Such analysis allows us to explore the complex interactions of global identity and global identification with both moderating variables that predict structures of beliefs and values and mediating variables associated with identity development.

At the *micro*-*level of analysis*, we home in on specific aspects of global identity, focusing in particular on BEVI Scale 4, Identity Diffusion, which measures the degree to which an individual does *not* feel a sense of directedness and clarity regarding their own life possibilities. We selected Identify Diffusion as an additional variable precisely because we wondered whether the experience of "otherness", as analysed in this study, might be associated with a greater tendency to experience a painful crisis of identity or a lack of clarity about how to navigate life demands. Here again, we analysed moderators (i.e. categorical variables) of identity using our three distinct formative variables—gender, ethnicity and country of origin—to see whether these categorical variables are related to how, and why, individuals experience their own sense of identity as they do.

#### **Results**

Analysis of results revealed that moderators of identity are strongly associated with the degree to which a global identity emerges. In addition, powerful interactions among BEVI mediators were apparent.

#### *Background–Domain Contrast*

Background–Domain Contrast is an index which illustrates how different or similar the group is, at the level of background information and domain scores, by the lowest 30%, middle 40% and highest 30% of Full Scale scores (see Table 6.2). Background–Domain Contrast is key to understanding whether, and to what degree, group characteristics (i.e. our moderating variables of gender, ethnicity and country of origin) are correlated with Full Scale scores. As shown in Table 6.2, trends emerge for each moderating variable. For example, more males make up the lowest Full Scale score group (959 males as opposed to 714 females), while females far outnumber males in the highest Full Scale score group (1169 females versus 413 males). The number of males decreases consistently from lowest to highest groups (from 959, to 537, to 413), while the number of females increases consistently (from 714, to 920, to 1169). Table 6.2 provides a broad-stroke view of the data and clear evidence that females are more likely than males to score higher on the Full Scale score. With regard to the other two moderating variables: in general, Caucasians seem more likely than non-Caucasians, and people raised in the USA more likely than those raised outside the USA, to score higher on the Full Scale score.<sup>2</sup>

#### *Analysis of BEVI Indexes*

We next analysed several more detailed indexes offered by the BEVI: Aggregate Profile, Decile Profile, Aggregate Profile by Gender, Aggregate Profile by Ethnicity and Aggregate Profile by Country of Origin.

#### *Aggregate Profile*

Aggregate Profile (see Fig. 6.1) offers a comparison of the top and bottom 30% of the Full Scale scores. In examining Fig. 6.1, we looked for scales with a marked difference between top and bottom Full Scale scores. As one would expect, the top and bottom groups of many scales are very dissimilar in ways that are consistent with emotional intelligence theory and the construction of the Full Scale score on the BEVI (see Table 6.2). For instance, it is clear that participants with the highest Full Scale scores have much higher Needs Fulfilment, Basic Openness, Socioemotional Convergence, Emotional Attunement, Meaning Quest, Sociocultural Openness, Ecological Resonance and Global Resonance.

Because we are operationalising the Full Scale score as a measure of global identity, it is useful to understand to what extent participants are troubled about their sense of identity; therefore, we focus on the Identity Diffusion Scale in Fig. 6.1, for further analysis. It is apparent that the bottom 30% score for Identity Diffusion is approximately twice as elevated as the top 30% for this analysis. From an interpretive standpoint, this suggests that individuals in the highest 30% of the Full Scale score are experiencing approximately half the "Identity Diffusion" of individuals in the lowest 30% of the Full Scale score. In other words, these results suggest that a greater degree of global identity, as operationalised here, is associated with a substantially lower degree of Identity Diffusion.

Recall from the above scale descriptors that Identity Diffusion measures the degree to which individuals feel a sense of being lost, confused or trapped in their current life situation (Wandschneider et al., 2015). As Spaeth et al. (2016) report, individuals scoring high on Identity Diffusion from the BEVI "tend to be less open or attuned to self, others, and the larger world, less able to tolerate complexity", and are considered

<sup>2</sup>The *n* for a particular group may be lower or higher than expected because a number of respondents may have the same Full Scale score (i.e. distribution rates are calculated on the basis of the percentages of scores that fall within the lowest, middle and highest bands of distribution, rather than on the basis of 1–100, which theoretically is how a Full Scale score could be calculated). Likewise, Decile Profile percentages may shift depending upon the point at which data entry occurs, although the large N means dispersion patterns will remain consistent.

**Fig. 6.1** Aggregate Profile—contrast by top 30% and bottom 30% of Full Scale scores

to be more in crisis about their identity, compared to those who scored lower in this particular scale (p. 222). Although it is important to note that neither group from this sample rates very high on Identity Diffusion, the fact that the higher global identity group also demonstrates substantially lower Identity Diffusion offers a measure of validity to our usage of the Full Scale score on the BEVI, since a higher degree of Identity Diffusion should *not* be associated with a higher degree of global identity; that is, the results are in the direction that would be expected.

#### *Decile Profile*

We next examined Decile Profile to see how individual respondents are dispersed across each of the scales by deciles (i.e. the distribution of scores in 10 "chunks", each representing 10% of the score range, from the lowest 10% that individuals may score on each BEVI scale to the highest 10%). Note that the darker the grey, the greater the degree of concentration of the overall sample within a particular decile. This index is particularly useful in observing the dispersion of the larger group across all BEVI scales (i.e. it helps illustrate if a group clusters at one or both ends of a scale or is scattered throughout the entire scale). Decile Profile, presented in Fig. 6.2, demonstrates a more nuanced and detailed view of the top and bottom 30% of Full Scale scores, providing a better understanding of distribution across all BEVI scales including Identity Diffusion.

Consistent with Aggregate Profile, it is clear that Identity Diffusion is concentrated towards the lower deciles for both groups (the top 30% and bottom 30% on the Full Scale score). However, note the extensive dispersion for both groups across the entire scale, which indicates that both the top and bottom Full Scale samples do evidence Identity Diffusion. That is one reason why it is important to go beyond mean-based comparisons with assessment, since the variability that may actually exist within a group is masked when we only look at averaged (aggregated) results (Wandschneider et al., 2015).

#### *Aggregate Profile by Gender*

Next, we examined the following three moderator variables (i.e. categorical or class variables, which influence and account for differences we see in mediator variables, such as "Identity Diffusion"): gender, ethnicity and country of origin. Aggregate Profile by Gender compares the scores of females and males across all 17 process scales of the BEVI. More specifically, Aggregate Profile by Gender provides a comparison of how males and females differ at the top and bottom 30% of the sample. As we would expect to see the given results of Background–Domain Contrast, where we saw that females were more likely to have high Full Scale scores than males, for many scales in Fig. 6.3, females tend to be higher on Basic Openness and Emotional


**Fig. 6.2** Decile Profile—contrast by top 30% and bottom 30% of full Scale scores

**Fig. 6.3** Aggregate Profile—contrast by gender

Attunement and lower on Basic Determinism and Gender Traditionalism. These trends do not hold for all scales. For Ecological Resonance and Global Resonance, the relationship is reversed, with both top and bottom group males scoring higher than females. However, when males outscore females on individual scales, the difference between genders is much smaller than on the scales where females score higher.

Several other scales show no difference between females and males in the top group, although females score higher than males in the bottom group in scales such as Needs Fulfilment, Self Awareness and Sociocultural Openness. Importantly, the Identity Diffusion scale contrast in Fig. 6.3 shows distinctive differences between the top and bottom 30 percentages in each gender; although comparing the genders, the scores between the top 30% males and top 30% females are very close, and the scores between the bottom 30% males and 30% females are identical. Overall, there is no meaningful difference between male and female groups in relation to the Identity Diffusion scale. In short, for this sample, gender does not appear to be a strong differential predictor of Identity Diffusion, although gender is a strong predictor of global identity as measured by the Full Scale score (see Table 6.2).

#### *Aggregate Profile by Country of Origin*

Aggregate Profile by Country of Origin provides a comparison of how US and non-US groups differ at the top and bottom 30% of this sample. For many scales, both top and bottom groups of participants raised in the USA and elsewhere are very similar (e.g. Needs Fulfilment, Socioemotional Convergence and Self Awareness). There are a few scales where non-US origin participants scored substantially higher only or especially in the bottom group. Some of these scales, such as Basic Determinism, are related negatively to the Full Scale score, while others, such as Sociocultural Openness and Ecological Resonance, contribute to the Full Scale score in a positive direction. Evidence from Fig. 6.4 suggests that participants of non-US origin are more likely than those from the USA to be open to culturally different others, and engaged and invested in environmental issues, regardless of the extent of their global identity as measured by the Full Scale score. On the other hand, the US origin group is less likely, across the board, to engage in black and white thinking and simple causal attributions.

The comparison for the Identity Diffusion Scale shows that there is minimum difference between the top and bottom 30% of the US group (16 and 22, respectively). However, the scores of non-US participants in the top and bottom groups are substantially different, which suggests an important finding vis-a-vis global identity. In particular, these results suggest that low Full Scale scorers *who were raised outside the USA* are experiencing a substantially higher degree of Identity Diffusion than any of the other three groups: US high Full Scale scores, US low Full Scale scores and Non-US high Full Scale scores. As such, a preliminary interpretation of these findings is that a greater degree of Identity Diffusion is mediated (i.e. influenced) by the scales/variables that are integral to the Full Scale score. In other words, (a) having less of a capacity to experience and/or make sense of one's own emotional world (lower Emotional Attunement), (b) exhibiting more black and white attributions (i.e. causal explanations) about why humans do what they do (higher Basic Determinism), (c) being less inclined to reflect on one's own psychological processes (lower Self Awareness) and (d) demonstrating a greater tendency to engage in stereotypical thinking about "the other" (lower Sociocultural Openness)—which are all variables associated with a lower Full Scale score and thus, for our purposes, a lower degree of global identity—are, in fact, quite strongly associated with a greater degree of confusion about who one is and why one feels "trapped" in one's own life, especially when moderated by not having been raised in the USA. In other words, although this is subject to further inquiry, it may be that those individuals who are already struggling

**Fig. 6.4** Aggregate Profile—contrast by country of origin

with lower global identity in general, and a diffuse sense of identity in particular, are especially prone to the perception and/or reality that a new culture and context is disinclined towards them as "the other" (i.e. individuals who are "different" or "not from" the USA), with all of the attendant and negative implications in regard to their ability to assimilate and acculturate (e.g. to contribute to, and gain acceptance from, the new culture).

#### *Aggregate Profile by Ethnicity*

Finally, as depicted in Fig. 6.5, Aggregate Profile by Ethnicity provides a comparison of Caucasian and non-Caucasian groups at the top and bottom 30% of this sample. Parallel to the country of origin comparison findings, we can see in Fig. 6.4 some scales showing little difference between the ethnic groups (e.g. Basic Openness and Socioemotional Convergence) and other scales where substantial differences do emerge. Again, as with country of origin groups, higher scores for non-Caucasian groups appear in both positive (e.g. Sociocultural Openness, Ecological Resonance, Global Resonance) and negative (e.g. Basic Determinism, Religious Traditionalism, Gender Traditionalism) directions with respect to the Full Scale score, which likely contributes to the results for ethnicity that we have seen in the Background–Domain Contrast (see Table 6.2).

**Fig. 6.5** Aggregate Profile—contrast by ethnicity

Thus, we can conclude that while overall, Caucasians may be more likely to evince a higher global identity via their higher Full Scale scores, individual scale predictions do not always place Caucasians in this position. In fact, some of the most important scales that theoretically and statistically support global identification (i.e. Sociocultural Openness and Global Resonance) depict non-Caucasians as evidencing higher degrees of global identity, especially in the bottom 30% group.

Also, of particular note is the striking difference between Caucasians and non-Caucasians on the Negative Life Events scale, which suggests that the more disadvantaged populations (e.g. those more likely to experience prejudicial conduct or attitudes at home and abroad) may also report a greater degree of familial dysfunction, poverty, trauma, violence and other Negative Life Events. Along these lines, it is important to recognise that the gap for ethnicity at this level is substantially larger than that for the other moderating variables. Specifically, as was also evident on Aggregate Profile by Country of Origin (see Fig. 6.4), the Identity Diffusion comparison in Fig. 6.5 shows only a minimum difference between the top and bottom 30% within the Caucasian group (12 versus 17). In contrast, the dramatic differences for the non-Caucasian group, on both top (31%) and bottom (59%) groups for Identity Diffusion, suggest a powerful interaction between the moderator of ethnicity and the mediator of Identity Diffusion.

In this regard, and at a broader level, Negative Life Events is correlated with many of the scales that are used to calculate the Full Scale score, including Identity Diffusion with a relationship of 66 (Wandschneider et al., 2015). Stated differently, when participants have high Negative Life Events scores, they also tend to have higher Identity Diffusion scores, and vice versa. It therefore seems plausible that the negative experiences that non-Caucasians report subsequently influence their understanding and engagement with self, others and the larger world. These difficulties become magnified when one is low in global identity as operationalised here, for the same reasons as noted above in the observations about country of origin. That is, if an individual already has relatively less emotional and cognitive capacity including, but not limited to, lower Emotional Attunement and higher Basic Determinism—*and is also non*-*Caucasian*—they are much more likely to experience a sense of being lost, confused and trapped in their own lives and in the larger world, which is another important finding from the current analysis.

#### **Discussion**

The findings of this study inform best practices in culturally competent pedagogies and programmes—and by extension, policies—that seek to promote international, multicultural and transformational learning, growth and development. Among other implications, findings suggest that substantial differences exist within and between subgroups of a large and diverse sample of students, who engage in learning experiences that are designed to facilitate cultural competence through higher education. At this big picture level, we can learn much by understanding how and why our students become organised as they are, in terms of their sense of identity before, during and after we encounter them, and the applications of such understanding for the development, implementation and assessment of our programmes and courses.

As Spaeth et al. (2016) observe, identity "guides the formation of self-concept, and influences an individual's behaviour, cognitive capacities and emotional reactions" (p. 207). It thus behoves international education administrators, educators, practitioners, scholars and policy-makers to assess and apprehend how human identity both shapes and is shaped by international, multicultural and transformative learning experiences; as well as how, why and under what circumstances, these experiences contribute to greater—or lesser—culturally competent learning, growth and development. In short, by understanding better how our students experience themselves, others and the larger world, we will be better able to design, evaluate and improve pedagogies and interventions that meet those students where they actually are, rather than where we think they are or should be (Shealy, in press; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

#### *Student Readiness for International, Cross-Cultural and Transformative Learning*

At the most basic level of analysis, our results illustrate that at the beginning of their educational experiences, our students are very different people, exhibiting substantial variation in the ways "identity" and "self" are structured, from the standpoint of the BEVI method and EI model. We see this variation clearly in Aggregate Profile (see Fig. 6.4), which compares the top ("high optimal") and bottom ("low optimal") 30% of Full Scale score responders; this same pattern emerges in each subsequent Aggregate Profile that focuses on three moderators: gender, country of origin and ethnicity (see Figs. 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5).

#### *Moderators and Mediators of Global Identity*

Extending our analysis of Full Scale score results, we next considered global identity—which we have again operationalised via the BEVI Full Scale score—now juxtaposed with specific moderators and mediators. Recall that, from the Background–Domain Contrast (presented in Table 6.2), we discovered a clear trend for Full Scale scores with regard to the moderating variable of gender. In short, in this sample, females were more likely to have higher Full Scale scores than males, indicating a greater inclination towards the underlying precepts of "global identity" for females—a finding that is consistent with other research of this nature (Pendleton, Cochran, Kapadia, & Iyer, 2016; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

However, both females and males in the top groups evince much higher Emotional Attunement than those in the bottom groups; thus, while gender has emerged as an important moderator in this analysis, with females higher than males in both top and bottom groups, the same pattern we saw earlier in the EGA emerges again in this analysis for the Full Scale score. In other words, although females remain higher than males on Emotional Attunement in both the "high" and "low" optimal groups an important finding in itself—these results illustrate what may be an even more intriguing observation: the basic affective/cognitive structures of global identity, as we define it here, appear to be a more powerful differentiator than the moderator of gender, in terms of what explains these differences. Therefore, how we are structured at these core levels of identity appears to be a more powerful predictor of these fundamental capacities (e.g. Emotional Attunement) than any of the moderating variables we examined in this study including, but not limited to, gender.

#### *Moderators and Mediators of Identity Diffusion*

We turn now from the holistic viewpoint of the macro-analysis to an examination of specific details, namely the Identity Diffusion Scale and its relationship to moderating and mediating variables. Focusing on this one scale accomplishes several purposes. Not only do the results of the Identity Diffusion Scale help confirm for us the validity of using the Full Scale scores as an indicator of the global identity construct, but we also gain insights into which subgroups are struggling most with their identities, at the point of entry into international and/or multicultural learning experiences. We know from other studies of T1/T2 BEVI data that mediating variables can change as a result of internationalised learning (Wandschneider et al., 2015) and that "change at the level of beliefs and values appears not only to occur and be measurable across time, but may show underlying patterns that help us evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention" (Shealy, 2016, p. 165).

Identity Diffusion is a particularly useful scale on the BEVI when it comes to formative assessment because it measures, among other factors, a participant's sense of discomfort with who they are, and lack of clarity about their place in the world. In this EGA analysis, participants as a whole have relatively low Identity Diffusion scores, with the bottom 30% group twice as high as the top 30% group, but still averaging in the lower third or so of the scale. While the gap for Identity Diffusion is not as large as we see with some other individual BEVI scales, it does still follow the typical pattern of data in this study, with a substantial top versus bottom group difference in the direction predicted by EI theory (Shealy, 2016).

It is important to note that the kind of anxiety reflected in the Identity Diffusion Scale is not necessarily harmful or disadvantageous, at least in the short term. Montuori and Fahim (2004) argue that, rather than necessarily a state to be avoided or eliminated, anxiety is "an integral part of being human" and "fundamentally, a source of learning and creativity" (p. 257). In other words, sometimes painful crises of identity may be a vital step towards greater self awareness and self-transformation. When we come into contact with worldviews, value systems and cultural practices that are strikingly different from—or even incompatible with—our own, we can be shaken to the core, since "our whole sense of making meaning of the world can literally be shattered" and "our confusion about the world will translate into a confusion about who we are" (p. 258).

There is a clear implication here for culturally responsive pedagogy and curriculum design: knowing that some students are coming to an experience already feeling a crisis of identity may well impact the level, extent and kinds of support that we should offer programme participants. Congruent with the above discussion, while some students may enter a learning experience in higher education ready to process it cognitively and affectively, others may need more preparation, reflection and support before, during and after the experience. Such perspective receives further and considerable additional support from a recent BEVI study of students from the Middle East, some of whom showed a number of similar findings to those obtained here (e.g. individuals with a lower capacity to access emotion, and higher tendency to make black and white attributions, struggled more with the high impact nature of the learning experience) (Giesing, 2017).

The highly intriguing findings from this study have yielded many implications and applications that are important for consideration by scholars, practitioners and leaders who are working to internationalise higher education, or who pursue greater effectiveness in international, multicultural and transformative education through evidencebased strategic planning, intentional curriculum design and culturally competent pedagogies. Drawing from the information discussed above, we have synthesised and compiled a list of 10 such implications and applications, as follows.


reports may help participants acknowledge and reflect on their own structures of values and beliefs, whereas group report debriefings of BEVI results can help students better understand who they are in relation to their cohort, as well as what events, people and societal forces may have shaped who they have become (Wandschneider et al., 2015).


#### **Why We Are Who We Are: Concluding Implications and Applications**

We undertook this research project with the intention to understand better how gender, ethnicity and country of origin function as moderators of the development of global identity, as measured by the BEVI, while also illuminating how various BEVI scales mediate identity for the subgroups of participants created by these variables. As this study demonstrates, the BEVI offers a sort of global identity "selfie" of a specific group when moderating and mediating variables are explored together. Such a snapshot is of great value, in examining not only a cross-sectional view of within-group differences, but also longitudinal studies that show how people change from one "selfie" to the next, perhaps in response to an international, multicultural or transformative learning experience (Wandschneider et al., 2015).

There are limitations to this study, including our focus on college-aged students, usage of Time 1 as opposed to T1/T2 data and binary distinctions between constructs such as gender. Likewise, although quite striking differences emerged between groups based upon the selected analytic variables, it would be necessary to replicate findings with an entirely new sample to ascertain the generalisability of these within- and between-group distinctions. Similarly, a cautionary note also applies to comparisons between different groups; for example, it would not be appropriate to conclude from these findings that one group is "superior" to another (e.g. Caucasian versus non-Caucasian; USA versus non-USA), a point that is explicated further below. On the contrary, what ought to be inferred from these results is that adverse circumstances, in any culture or context, may be associated with a greater struggle to apprehend and navigate one's own life journey. This working hypothesis should lead to empathy rather than stereotyping, as well as an appreciation for how our relative degree of privilege can fundamentally affect how, and why, we humans experience self, others and the larger world, as we do. A similar caveat applies to the interpretation of scale score change in general; as well as what we have learned about the nature of belief/value structures and interactions (e.g. high Religious Traditionalism does not necessarily mean low Emotional Attunement), the relationship of core needs to human values and the processes by which identity changes over time (Shealy, 2016).

Along these lines, it should be emphasised that the BEVI seeks to open spaces through which the measurable human impact of such processes (e.g. engaging beliefs, cultures and practices that are different from our own) can be experienced, understood and evaluated in a pluralistic, credible and ecologically valid manner. To understand this commitment, it may be helpful to reflect briefly on some relevant conceptual and methodological considerations. Much quantitative research of this nature relies on categorical (often binary) variables because that is what is required for most inferential statistical analyses; for example, over the years, BEVI researchers have examined a number of structural equation models that specify the "model"—the theories or concepts in our heads about how "reality" works—which is then subject to the "structural equation" statistical analysis. Basically, structural equation modelling (SEM) allows us to examine the empirical relationship among psychometrically measurable constructs (e.g. latent variables that meet appropriate standards of reliability and validity), which help explain the underlying relationships between predictors and criteria (Piotr, 2017). Using SEM with the BEVI, for example, we know that there is a relationship between moderating variables like ethnicity and mediating variables like Sociocultural Openness on the BEVI and that they interact together and culminate in differences among predictor/outcome variables, such as interest in, or satisfaction from, study abroad. Such SEM findings make sense given that overall, people who self-report as "White" or "Caucasian" tend to be lower on Sociocultural Openness than people who self-report as non-White (a finding that makes sense, since minority groups tend to know more about majority groups than majority groups know about minority groups, this being a matter of cultural adaptation and survival) (Tabit et al., 2016).

While such results are very intriguing, the story is even more complicated and interesting when we see such processes through the lens of SEM. More specifically, the higher one's Sociocultural Openness on the BEVI, the more interested one tends to be in the prospect of participating in study abroad, a result that is influenced by life history. This is because a greater degree of Negative Life Events, another scale on the BEVI, is associated with lower Sociocultural Openness, which also tends to be associated with lower interest in international/multicultural education in general (Tabit et al., 2016). The interactive implications and applications of these processes are considerable when one simultaneously examines how "formative variables" (e.g. life history, ethnicity, gender, language, education) are empirically associated with other scales on the BEVI, which further predict specific observable or outcomes variables (e.g. careers, grades, political orientation, religious commitments) (Acheson et al., in press; Shealy, 2016). Ultimately, to examine and understand these phenomena, which appear across cultures and contexts, we must have a way—statistically—to categorise differences between groups, even though we all recognise that such categorical variables have limitations. That is one reason why the BEVI is also a mixed-methods measure and includes qualitative in addition to quantitative questions (e.g. qualitative findings help us interpret and give texture, whereas quantitative findings give us precision, as well as the ability to make reliable and longitudinal comparisons across groups and experiences) (Iyer, 2013; Wandschneider et al., 2015).

At the same time, one of the most powerfully consistent findings from crosscountry/cross-cultural work with the BEVI is that there is greater within- than between-group variability. That is why *it is extremely important not to stereotype any group*—including, but by no means limited to, White or non-White or western and non-western people, and people with any characteristics with which we identify (e.g. gender, politics, religion)—mainly because *there is more variability within different groups of people than between them*. In other words, from BEVI data across a very wide range of contexts and cultures, we repeatedly see that regardless of personal characteristics, histories or commitments, *all human beings are completely capable of racism, sexism and every other* "*ism*" *across all demographic groups all over the world* (e.g. see Pendleton, Cochran, Kapadia, & Iyer, 2016; Tabit et al., 2016). Confusion around such matters (i.e. the belief that specific people from specific groups will be more—or less—racist, sexist, etc., than other people or groups)—particularly in public discourse or as a matter of policy (e.g. "White people are X", "Black people are Y", "males are X", "females are Y", etc.)—may be associated with and/or predictive of (1) casual to severe racism, sexism or even violent acts of aggression (e.g. mass shootings, sexual assault) and (2) harmful excesses of the "call out culture" (e.g. public shaming that leads to serious life and professional consequences without sufficient accountability, due process or self-reflection) (e.g. Aronson, 2012; Ross, 2019).

That is because from the standpoint of the BEVI, and its underlying EI theoretical framework, what we ultimately believe and value (a) is inextricably linked to how our core needs have been experienced by our caregivers and others throughout development, which (b) further shapes how our selves are structured (e.g. what we call good or true—or bad or false—about self, others and the world at large), which then (c) further influences why we think what we think, say what we say and do what we do (Shealy et al., 2012). Conceptually and empirically, this complex process by which we become who we are, and do what we do, may be statistically predicted, to a degree, by any number of variables (e.g. gender, ethnicity, country of origin) which do show—in the aggregate—trends such as those reported above (e.g. White people *overall* tend to be lower on Sociocultural Openness). However, again, BEVI data all over the world strongly indicate that there is more within-group than betweengroup difference. In other words, it is quite often the case that a White person will *not* show the characteristics of White people in general, males will *not* show the characteristics of males in general and so on. This is because we are enormously complex and multi-determined creatures and as such, singular variables—such as gender, ethnicity and country of origin—will indeed influence who we are and how we see self, others and the larger world, but only to a degree, and typically under specific circumstances which are mediated by other variables such as life history, education, political/religious background and so on (Pendleton et al., 2016; Shealy, 2016; Tabit et al., 2016).

Complicating matters further, abundant evidence from the BEVI also indicates that life history and events often have a profound effect on the manner in which those propensities are expressed and to what degree (e.g. how self, others and the larger world are experienced), a finding that emerged powerfully in the analyses reported above. For example, people who are experienced as "the other" by the dominant group in the USA often struggle more with issues of their own identity, particularly if they already were predisposed to do so via their own life history (which may have been rife with prejudice, struggle, etc.). Along these lines, as of this writing, there are over 60,000 administrations of the BEVI all over the world. From these findings, and hundreds of BEVI reports, it appears clear that one major task before us as a species is to learn how to regard "the other" with greater emotional and attributional complexity and care, and to recognise that we are all in this together (i.e. we all are capable of prejudice and delimiting beliefs and values about other human beings, processes which are mediated and moderated by the life experiences we have) (Shealy, in press).

In short, such findings, including those reported in this chapter, should lead to compassion and understanding (e.g. about the multifaceted nature of "privilege" and the educational and policy implications of that) as we acknowledge the impact of life history/events on us and all the attendant applications; for example, we should take care of each other and recognise that the allocation of resources and the life histories we experience affect our ability to "adapt" to cultures that are different from our own. Illuminating those sorts of complexities is a major purpose of the BEVI, in addition to assisting allied work through the non-profit International Beliefs and Values Institute and Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series.

In the final analysis, we recognise the complexity of these interacting processes, which can make hard and fast determinations of "what works best" as international, multicultural and transformative educators challenging but also eminently doable, if our approaches to assessment-based intervention are sufficiently comprehensive, persistent and ecologically valid. Towards such means and ends, as was discussed above, in terms of the need for multifaceted measurement of global competence, hundreds of analyses suggest that there is no "one" scale that "works best" or "always shows" greater pre-/post-change. Space limitations prevent further discussion of alternative or complementary approaches to measurement, although many comparative sources are readily available (e.g. Roy, Wandschneider, & Steglitz, 2014). What we have seen repeatedly is that change processes appear to be associated with specific characteristics of individuals and groups, which interact further with the type, quality and nature of the educational or programmatic intervention. This perspective has been described as the 7Ds of change (Wandschneider et al., 2015), which may be helpful in attending to the multiple factors that appear associated with international, multicultural and transformative learning.

In that regard, as long as the above complexities are kept in mind, the findings presented here offer important guidance for how we approach the development and delivery of educational programmes, practices and policies (e.g. the 10 implications and applications for learning, growth and development, listed above). For example, in working with emotionally-laden content, we have learned that *process is as, if not more, important than content*; that is, instructors are advised to spend sufficient time dealing with the emotional sequelae of presenting controversial issues to their students, rather than simply delivering factual content (Tabit et al., 2016). This study also illustrates how population variables that are typically collapsed, or not even examined, have powerful implications for the design, implementation and analysis of international, cross-cultural and transformative learning experiences (Acheson et al., in press; Goodman & Gorski, 2015; Iyer, 2013).

By rigorously investigating such underlying processes through sophisticated and comprehensive measurement with an unusually large sample, we can see how moderating variables—gender, ethnicity and country of origin—interact with mediating variables—such as Identity Diffusion, Sociocultural Openness, Global Resonance and other individual BEVI scales—to shape the relative ability and willingness of students to learn, grow and develop as a result of international, multicultural and transformative educational experiences. Ultimately, this research offers a way to understand and evaluate who learns what, and why, and under what circumstances. Such information can help us develop, implement and evaluate more effective and meaningful programmes, processes and policies, while also reminding us about one of the fundamental and overarching purposes of education: to cultivate globally sustainable selves and the capacity to care for others and the world at large.

#### **References**


**Felix Wang** serves as the Associate Executive Director for the Center for Global Engagement at James Madison University. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Campbell University, Master of Education in College Student Personnel Administration from James Madison University, and PhD at the Center for Higher Education Internationalisation (CHEI), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Felix has over 15 years' experience in the field of international education.

**Kathleen Pait** is a student in the Combined-Integrated Doctoral Program in Clinical and School Psychology at James Madison University. Her research interests include the psychology of religion, spirituality and identity. She has taught an undergraduate course entitled "Making Sense of Beliefs and Values: A Guided Tour for Global Citizens." She holds a Master of Arts in Psychology in Education from Columbia University.

**Kris Acheson** (Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2008), a former Fulbright scholar to Honduras, currently serves as director of Purdue University's Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research, with a courtesy Faculty appointment in the Brian Lamb School of Communication. Her research interests include the development and assessment of intercultural competence in higher education.

**Lee Sternberger** is Executive Director of the Center for Global Engagement at James Madison University, leading the Centre's ongoing process of internationalisation. She holds a PhD in clinical psychology from Washington State University and a Master of Arts in Architectural History from the University of Virginia. Lee's research focuses on the assessment of international, multicultural, and transformative learning.

**Renee Staton** is Professor in the Department of Graduate Psychology's Counselling Programs, at James Madison University. Her research interests include multicultural counselling, international education, and gender issues in counselling. Her recent work includes an exploration of counselling needs of students who are immigrants, and consultation regarding cross-cultural and ethical issues in counselling and agency settings.

**Craig N. Shealy** is Executive Director of the International Beliefs and Values Institute and Professor of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University. His publications include *Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self*, (forthcoming, Oxford University Press) and *Making Sense of Beliefs and Values* (2016, Springer Publishing). Dr Shealy is an American Psychological Association (APA) Fellow and Past President of APA's Division of International Psychology.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Part III Policy and Policy Issues**

Issues of evaluation, leadership, racism, knowledge and pedagogy in the Indigenous higher education context are explored and addressed in this part. James Smith and Kim Robertson draw on empirical data from a recent study about strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia. They conclude that cultural competence is a foundation concept for strengthening evaluation that could provide a range of procedural options and benefits in the evaluation process. Kerrie E. Doyle and Catherine Hungerford research on Indigenist leadership proposes a model consisting of several core leadership values including courage, integrity, service and unconditional positive regard, with the model placing mindfulness attributes at the centre. They believe that such a model can be a vehicle of social inclusion. Juanita Sherwood and Janine Mohamed, through the method of a yarn, explore the related issues of cultural competence and cultural safety. In doing so, they identify systemic racism as a contributor to poor health outcomes. Liz Rix and Darlene Rotumah state that conversations about racism remain a very contested space within the health care context. They conclude that mainstream health organisations must acknowledge and address systemically embedded institutional racism, and that respect for and inclusion of Indigenous Knowledges is a crucial step in addressing the racial and cultural exclusion of Indigenous Australians from equitable access to health care services. Michele Willsher and Janine Oldfield argue that Indigenous pedagogies and approaches, such as culturally sustaining pedagogy, are crucial for higher education. They contend that the Both Ways approach that underlies teaching and learning at the Batchelor Institute and the parallels it has with Freire's problem-posing methodology is important in the teaching of cultural competence.

## **Chapter 7 Evaluating Cultural Competence in Indigenous Higher Education Contexts in Australia: A Challenge for Change**

**James A. Smith and Kim Robertson**

#### **Introduction**

Indigenous<sup>1</sup> participation and achievement in education is an issue of national and international significance. Within Australia, the *Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People* (Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012)—often referred to as the Behrendt Review—provided a clear blueprint for investing in policies and programmes that support Indigenous pathways, transitions, participation and achievement in higher education. Yet, the review also acknowledged that:

While considerable data was available through departmental program-based reporting to monitor progress, there was not always sufficient evidence to assess the overall success or otherwise of specific programs. In some cases, there were no independent evaluations of programs for the Panel to draw on. (Behrendt et al., 2012, p. 154)

The review subsequently recommended that the Australian Government and universities work together to develop a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education monitoring and evaluation framework (Behrendt et al., 2012). While there have been multiple investments in Indigenous higher education since the Behrendt Review, action on this recommendation has remained elusive. Similarly, the 2015 recommendation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher

J. A. Smith (B)

#### K. Robertson

<sup>1</sup>For the purposes of this chapter, "Indigenous" refers to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and/or Australian First Nations peoples, unless specified otherwise. This term is used for brevity. The authors acknowledge the diversity of views with regard to using these terms.

National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, Bentley, Australia e-mail: james.smith@menzies.edu.au

Charles Darwin University, Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor—Indigenous Leadership, Darwin, NT, Australia

#### **Indigenous Evaluation in Australia**

There has been a strong realisation in Australia that the nature of evaluation evidence being generated in response to Indigenous policy and programme investments has generally been quite poor (Hudson, 2016, 2017; Muir & Dean, 2017). Hudson (2017, p. 13) claims "Indigenous evaluations are characterised by a lack of data and the absence of a control group, as well as an over-reliance on anecdotal evidence." The Productivity Commission (2013) and the Australian National Audit Office (2017) have both emphasised the importance of improving evaluation in Indigenous programme and policy contexts across Australia. In response, the Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) developed the Indigenous Advancement Strategy Evaluation Framework (DPMC, 2018). However, this has not been explicitly linked to strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education. More recently, in April 2019, the Productivity Commission appointed its first Indigenous Commissioner to drive the development of a whole of government Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, although at this stage it is unclear whether this will include a focus on higher education. As such, it is useful to understand the appetite and existing evidence base to support a more focused approach in this realm.

#### **Indigenous Evaluation in Higher Education**

The notion of incorporating Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) into evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts dovetails neatly with scholarship about Indigenous research methods and data sovereignty (Drew, Wilks, & Wilson, 2015; Kovach, 2010; Smith, 2012; Walter, 2010, 2016). Indeed, it could help to galvanise the role of IKs as a central feature of evaluation processes in this setting. The work of Rigney (1999), Kovach (2010) and Smith (2012) is particularly influential in this regard. Yet, until recently, there has been limited receptiveness within western academic institutions to develop monitoring and evaluation processes, and indicators designed to examine the cultural responsiveness of universities, particularly in relation to the lived experiences of Indigenous students and staff. This is important within the context of the release of the *Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy 2017*–*2020*, which has helped to pave a new pathway in this regard (Universities Australia, 2017).

In Australia, Rigney (2017) has published a conceptual *Design and Evaluation for Indigenisation* that can guide institutional change. Additional and complementary empirically based evaluation models have also been developed (Drew et al., 2015; NCSEHE, 2018; Smith, Pollard, Robertson, & Trinidad, 2017; Smith, Pollard, Robertson, & Shalley, 2018). The emergence of these conceptual frameworks is particularly timely. For example, Indigenous governance is increasingly being (re)emphasised as an important factor in Indigenous higher education policy and programme contexts, with clear objectives to grow the Indigenous higher education professional and academic workforce, and improve cultural competence in Australian universities (Buckskin et al., 2018; Universities Australia, 2011, 2017). As we have previously concluded:

There is a clear call to action for strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia. This will require a unified response between Indigenous scholars, government and universities. (Smith et al., 2018, p. 83)

In this chapter, we draw on empirical data from a recent study about strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia (Smith et al., 2017a; Smith, Larkin, Yibarbuk, & Guenther, 2017b, 2018).We also refer to outcomes from a national workshop about Indigenous data sovereignty in higher education (NCSEHE, 2018). A conceptual model of promising performance parameters to strengthen Indigenous higher education monitoring and evaluation in Australia emerged from this work Smith et al., (2018) (see Fig. 7.1). This model is useful for understanding potential performance parameters in a holistic sense, in relation to:


However, the relevance of such performance parameters is best understood in relation to the personal and professional narratives of those who are part of the higher education system (Smith et al., 2018). As such, we use the voices of Indigenous scholars from across Australia, to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with evaluating the effectiveness, and measuring the impacts, of culturally responsive Indigenous-focused higher education strategies currently being implemented by universities nationally. Using a combination of thematic and framework analyses, we discuss our findings within the context of Universities Australia's (UA) *Indigenous Cultural Competency Framework* (2014). In the spirit of continuous quality improvement, we demonstrate where there are clear areas of alignment with the existing framework, but also highlight areas where additional strategic emphasis is required.

#### **Methodology**

The following section describes the research methodology associated with the research about strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia. The project was approved by the Charles Darwin University Human

Research Ethics Committee on 13 February 2017 (H17005). There were two separate participant groups included in this study. This included (a) policy-makers and (b) Indigenous scholars. We have privileged the voices of the Indigenous scholars in this chapter. A brief description of each participant group and the respective selection and recruitment processes is provided below. In the context of this study, an Indigenous scholar was defined as someone who identified as Indigenous and who was working in a higher education institution within an executive (such as Deputy Vice-Chancellor or Pro Vice-Chancellor), management, strategic policy, research or in a senior academic teaching-oriented role.

Twenty-four Indigenous scholars were recruited to this study using a mixture of purposive and snowball sampling. This was initially facilitated through networks known to the primary researcher (JS). However, further recruitment was aided by presenting to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (NATSIHEC) caucus meeting in June 2017. Targeted efforts were made to recruit Indigenous scholars from all states and territories across Australia, and while we do not claim to have a representative sample, we did succeed in this task. In the spirit of recognising Indigenous participants as sovereign people, we acknowledge the following Indigenous language groups and regions (with permission granted to acknowledge such heritage) from across Australia were involved in this study: Worimi, Palawa, Ngugi, Birapai, Wakka Wakka, Noongar, Kungarakung, Tharwal, Kaurna, Gurindji, Narungga Ngarrindjeri, Kabi Kabi, Anaiwan, Far North Queensland, Boigu Island, Pertame (Southern Arrernte), Tugga-Gah Wiradjuri, Kokoberran and Stolen Generation.

Nine Indigenous scholars have requested their comments be attributed by name in line with recent academic data sovereignty and data ownership discussions. The other Indigenous scholars have requested to remain anonymous or indicated they do not mind if they are identified. In these instances, pseudonyms have been used (where possible, pseudonyms were selected by the participants).

Eighteen respondents provided details about their length of service in the higher education sector. These participants had worked for an average of 17 years in the higher education sector. Many also reported having been involved in a variety of national Indigenous education-focused advisory groups and committees such as NATSIHEC, National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN), Ministerial Advisory Councils and/or a state and national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Consultative Group. Many had also been involved on a university Senates or Academic Board. This demonstrates the depth of experience among the Indigenous scholars interviewed. It also means that each respondent potentially brings their own political agenda and/or vested interest to the interview context in the way they have responded. Eight interviews were conducted face-to-face with the remaining interviews conducted via telephone.

#### **Interviews, Coding and Analysis**

A semi-structured interview format was adopted. All interviews were audio-recorded. All interviews were conducted between March and November 2017. Interviews typically lasted between 45 minutes and two and half hours. All interviews were transcribed by a professional transcription service. Written field notes were compared with transcripts for accuracy prior to coding. All participants also had the opportunity to review their transcripts prior to coding.

Coding and analysis occurred parallel to the interview process. Coding happened between May 2017 and January 2018. Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS)—NVIVO 11—was used by JS to code the textual interview data. The coding of Indigenous scholar interviews involved an inductive approach whereby codes emerged out of the data (Thomas, 2006). These codes were then repeatedly examined and analysed for consistent themes and subthemes. The thematic analysis process occurred between August 2017 and January 2018. In November 2017, a half-day coding and analysis workshop was held with the research team, including two Indigenous researchers, to discuss and interrogate the initial coding patterns and themes. Through this process, the following enablers and drivers of Indigenous evaluation in higher education were identified (Smith et al., 2018, p. 7):


The themes italicised above (for emphasis) had an explicit cultural competence connotation. We then used the thematic analysis outcomes to undertake a further framework analysis. We did this by using the guiding principles outlined in UA's *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (Universities Australia, 2014). Framework analysis has its origins in social policy contexts in the United Kingdom (UK) and is often perceived as a pragmatic approach to real-world investigations, particularly those applied to policy research (Ritchie & Spencer, 1994; Smith & Firth, 2011;Ward et al., 2013). It involves using predetermined categories to code data. The adoption of this approach enabled a deeper analysis of Indigenous scholar narratives in relation to the challenges and opportunities associated with evaluating strategies specifically related to Indigenous cultural competence in Australian universities. This was a more deductive process, whereby the guiding principles from the framework were used as pre-identified categories to support the analysis:


Interview data relating to Indigenous cultural competencies which did not overtly align to one of these five guiding principles was allocated to a "new theme." We argue these "new themes" could be used by UA to expand the scope of its cultural competence framework in future revisions.

#### **Evaluation in the Context of Recognised Indigenous Cultural Competence Guiding Principles in Australian Universities**

Before presenting our analysis, it is important to understand that the concept of cultural competence within higher education institutions is defined and discussed through multiple discourses; that is, cultural competence is not a static concept. Within our research, the following terms were used by Indigenous scholars as a way to talk about "cultural competence" broadly within higher education contexts: "cultural integrity", "cultural accountability", "cultural leadership", "Indigenous leadership", "Indigenous Knowledges", "culturally responsive", "culturally sensitive", "Indigenous lens/perspectives/ways", and "cultural heritage, protection and preservation." That is, cultural competence means different things to different people. When reflecting on UA's Indigenous cultural competency framework, one participant claimed:

It was developed and endorsed by Universities Australia several years ago. It was done through consultation with quite a number of universities … I just think it's a fascinating topic because, as an Aboriginal person, the cultural competency framework stuff has been theorised and conceptualised into a bit of a box, whereas for Aboriginal people, it's actually a very visceral, real experience. And it's very easy to interpret whether a place appears to be culturally safe, secure and competent. Having said that, the framework does capture that quite well, in terms of outlining the things that universities should and could be doing to make universities that sort of place … we don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You do have things like the National Cultural Competency Framework … We need to potentially just put the magnifying glass back on there and say, okay, what's worked? What hasn't? Why? And really start to bring together, I think, some of that evidence and analyse it. Using perhaps a different lens. (Amber Collins)

The following analysis aims to place a magnifying glass on cultural competence as a lens from which to view evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts.

#### *Indigenous Governance and Leadership*

The influence of Indigenous governance and leadership, in its various forms, is perceived as important to guide Indigenous strategy development, expenditure and outcomes in higher education contexts in Australia. However, such influence can be difficult to measure through western monitoring and evaluation processes. Therefore, news ways to track success in relation to Indigenous governance and leadership are needed:

the inclusion of Aboriginal people in decision-making around how the funds are going to be used. Whether that's an executive position or an Indigenous executive position or whether that's an Aboriginal committee and what are their terms of reference because again what influence does that Aboriginal committee have in actually really defining the expenditure … it wouldn't hurt to look at that across-the-board as far as evaluating the influence and success. I think influence is the biggest thing, I think that's an interesting evaluation discussion, like influence of community, influence of the senior positions, influence of Indigenous voice and leadership. (Leanne Holt)

An important aspect of this discussion relates to the influence of Elders, and the role they play, within higher education contexts. Many participants considered Elders to be knowledge holders, and thus experts, who are increasingly being acknowledged in universities across Australia. As one participant noted:

I pushed to set up the First Council of Elders in any university … one way of honouring both reconciliation, action plans that most universities have, and the commitment to the cultural competencies and the commitment to the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People and the commitment to the Aboriginal Education Strategy was to have our knowledge holders as an integral part of the scholarship of the university and it's worked well, it's worked really well … 14 universities now have a more comprehensive and a more robust engagement of Elders so that's one example … Whereas before that, it was all a nice gesture, drag our people out of the woodwork to give a cultural acknowledgement or have somebody just rubber stamp something … we've now got a National Council of Elders … they've now been endorsed by WINHEC to set up the Global Indigenous Elders Alliance and it's all about not only profiling the scholarship of Indigenous knowledge and Elder knowledge but it's also about putting in place a process of cultural heritage, protection and preservation. (Grace)

While there is increasing evidence of Indigenous leadership positions and governance structures embedded with universities, little is known about the quality of these structures. In 2011, a report entitled "On Stony Ground: Governance and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation in Australian Universities" was Australia's first Indigenous-led and comprehensive attempt to measure success in relation to Indigenous governance in higher education (Moreton-Robinson, Walter, Singh, & Kimber, 2011). With the exception of narrative reporting requirements associated with the Australian Government's Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP), there has been no equivalent assessment of the influence of Indigenous governance and leadership since the release of the report. This warrants a much closer examination, with the potential to develop new and innovative measures with a sharper focus on the value and quality of Indigenous governance and leadership outcomes.

#### *Culturally Competent Graduates*

Universities Australia has highlighted aspirations for an increase in culturally competent graduates. While this is laudable, there is a high degree of variance across Australian universities about exactly what a culturally competent graduate looks like (Frawley, 2017). As such, there are equally diverse ways in how this can be measured. As such, The University of Sydney's National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) was established with Higher Education Participation and Partnership Program funding to provide guidance in this regard.

The restructuring of degrees to have a more explicit focus on cultural competence as a graduate attribute was frequently celebrated. However, some participants questioned whether the goal to have culturally competent graduates was achievable at the scale required:

here we are now, 30 years later, and we're still saying most of the sector is not culturally competent. It's culturally sensitive but it's not culturally competent. And to say that we're going to have cultural competency as the measure of graduates is crazy when we don't have enough people in the sector to be able to do that and we don't have enough change within the sector to be able to do that effectively. (Grace)

There was broad agreement among participants that the current higher education workforce (in its entirety) was not considered to be culturally competent, which made it extremely difficult to grow and foster culturally competent graduates. That is, a dual focus on building a culturally competent workforce and culturally competent graduates was required if tangible improvements were to be achieved. Further research to establish the likely qualities and subsequent indicators of (a) a culturally competent workforce, and (b) culturally competent graduates, is warranted. Once qualities have been agreed, evaluating the longitudinal impacts of cultural competence—from workforce, student and organisational perspectives—will be important.

#### *Culturally Competent Research*

The importance of culturally competent research is well recognised nationally (Universities Australia, 2014). This has been emphasised through the delivery of international Indigenous research conferences co-hosted by NATSIHEC and NIRAKN. While this is influenced by the cultural competence of individual researchers, it is equally impacted by the research environment and the respective institutional policies, protocols and strategies that researchers are expected to use. As one participant questioned:

What is the ideal construct of a university for Indigenous people? So, when will the university allow a thesis in language that is not beholden to a supervisory team that their first language is English? How does a university go about acknowledging that type of Eldership, which actually could contribute to a research higher degree—research and scholarship development within the university based on our terms? (Tracey Bunda)

Many participants echoed Tracey's comment above. Culturally competent research relied on an organisational environment that embraced IKs and practices in new, innovative and more respectful ways. NIRAKN was often perceived to be moving this agenda forward within Australia, but not necessarily at the speed or scale required to see positive systemic change. However, this was also mediated by each university's commitment (or lack thereof) to the development of an Indigenous Research Strategy.

#### *Increasing the Indigenous Workforce*

All participants spoke about the importance of increasing the Indigenous workforce if improved outcomes in Indigenous higher education are to be achieved. However, institutional commitments to this endeavour were extremely varied.

we're raising Indigenous employment outcomes … that cultural competency issue, I think, comes back to that institutional commitment and change, which will drive great employment outcomes and retention … But retaining them and progressing them, I think they're the next areas that the university and other institutions need to do a lot more work on. And that comes when they actually do a lot more of that cultural change across the university, cultural competencies in the areas, reviewing their recruitment and the retention practices and stuff. (Kathy)

It was repeatedly reinforced by participants that recruitment, retention and career progression were all important factors in building and sustaining a skilled Indigenous higher education workforce across all areas of the university. This has recently been echoed in a much more comprehensive report prepared by NATSIHEC for the Australian Government (Buckskin et al., 2018). This report has made multiple Indigenous academic workforce recommendations including a national job evaluation review of Indigenous positions, and a national workforce modelling review to comprehensively examine supply and demand issues among the Indigenous academic workforce (Buckskin et al., 2018). Another message reiterated by participants was that the employment of Indigenous people in leadership and management positions (and not just Indigenous-identified or Indigenous-focused positions) was considered to be important:

I think employing the Indigenous people at that higher level, the manager level, the executive level. That's a huge thing that we find, and I know that that's where the government are moving towards anyway, especially in the ISSP guidelines. (AK)

This was also perceived to be critical for enhancing monitoring and evaluation capability across universities.

#### *Partnering with Indigenous Communities*

It is critically important for universities to build trusting and respectful relationships with Indigenous students, their families and the communities to which they belong, for them to successfully engage in all facets of higher education (Smith et al., 2017b). Yet, there is insufficient evaluation evidence about which programmes and policies are most effective and why (Frawley, Smith, & Larkin, 2015). Some participants argued for a more concerted focus on qualitative monitoring and evaluation measures:

we need to look more closely at the qualitative measure of how we engage with the community. How do we provide a culturally safe and responsive learning environment for Indigenous students? (David)

Other participants focused more intently on cultural leadership and cultural responsiveness as key mechanisms for engagement with Indigenous communities:

We feed into communities that are quite dispossessed from education. We feed into high unemployment areas and we feed into communities that don't have that tradition of higher education. So that notion of cultural leadership is really, really important [for engaging communities]. (Tracey Bunda)

all institutions, whether they be schools or universities, have to be culturally responsive and draw on the funds of knowledge that the students bring to these institutions and therefore these institutions have to adjust their institutional culture by which to make schooling and universities more culturally responsive. (Lester-Irabinna Rigney)

#### **Evaluation in the Context of New and Emerging Indigenous Cultural Competence Guiding Principles**

The following themes extend beyond the focus of the current *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (Universities Australia, 2014). In the spirit of continuous quality improvement, we present these new and emerging guiding principles as a means to demonstrate potential areas of expansion when the framework is next revised.

#### *An Explicit Indigenous Lens*

Concern was raised by multiple participants that an Indigenous lens is critical to the way in which monitoring and evaluation should be approached in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia. Indeed, non-Indigenous evaluators may not have the cultural understandings or capabilities required to analyse and interpret key factors that are an inherent part of adopting an Indigenous lens. As Leanne remarks:

sometimes there's difference between looking through a non-Indigenous lens and looking through an Indigenous lens and actually understanding some of the other considerations, particularly the cultural considerations of our communities and our students while they're looking at it … is it driven by community, having that understanding, is it driven by community, is it considering the cultural confidence of students? … So as a non-Aboriginal person, sometimes it's hard to understand those considerations. (Leanne Holt)

In response to recommendations from this research, a national workshop was facilitated by National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) to coincide with the 2018 National Cultural Competence Conference, hosted by The University of Sydney in April 2018. A key focus of this workshop was to take a deeper dive into the concept of Indigenous data sovereignty as it relates to evaluation in Indigenous higher education. This process culminated in the development of a pictorial image about good practice principles that underpin Indigenous data sovereignty (NCSEHE, 2018) (see Fig. 7.2). Such principles included, among others, fostering Indigenous leadership, recognising sovereign rights, celebrating Indigenous expertise, valuing Indigenous informed innovation, and ensuring fit-for-purpose methodologies (NCSEHE, 2018). This provides a distinctly different lens with which to conceptualise and undertake monitoring and evaluation functions, when compared to current practices.

#### *Indigenous Curricula*

Akin to earlier discussion about building culturally competent graduates, it is also important to strengthen the focus on Indigenous curricula. However, concerns were raised about how best to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of Indigenous curricula:

We've done stuff here at this university where we've mapped how many courses use Indigenous information or incorporate Indigenous information. We've talked with people, we've had training courses to help them, but actually I would like some real reporting lines on how the universities take that up. (Stephanie Gilbert)

Accountability and quality were two issues consistently raised in relation to Indigenous curricula. This was poignantly highlighted by Maggie Walter who claimed:

If you just look at those universities who run units around Indigenous-related issues, some of them can look quite good. But it depends what sort of rubbish, or not rubbish, they're

teaching. The evaluation of those, which has traditionally never been done by Aboriginal people, so some of the courses, we know, are very, very poor quality because Aboriginal students all over Australia, complain about them; and the Indigenous content is very poor. (Maggie Walter)

Quality Indigenous-focused curricula were perceived to involve strengths-based notions of Indigenous people and culture, in contrast to deficit discourses. This was perceived to provide a more positive learning environment:

as a teacher, in developing curriculum, in Higher Education we're notorious for having what I call "the mad," "the bad" and "the sad" of Indigenous people in curriculum … no matter how many different policies we have of engagement, and getting the students in, if we're not making the learning environment safe for them, in terms of seeing themselves reflected positively in the curriculum, whether it be, or their community, our community, reflected in the curriculum, we're not actually going to change very much. (Zac)

Importantly, some Indigenous scholars extended this discussion to emphasise the importance of Indigenous curricula being delivered by Indigenous academics. There was a strong sense that Indigenous academics are better equipped to deliver Indigenous curricula and that a potentially greater impact can be achieved as a result.

Do you want people to be culturally aware, putting more Aboriginal content or knowledge into curriculum? It's great that it's in there and sure, we are extending the body of curriculum and words about Aboriginal people in the courses or are we actually changing the mindset of students and how do you really change—assess the mindset of the student or mindset of an academic from having an Aboriginal person deliver a lecture. How do you measure it and why? (Leslie)

There was also an assertion that Indigenous students prefer to see Indigenous staff within higher education institutions.

Aboriginal people, when they go into a university, they want Indigenous courses about health and education to be laden with content about Aboriginal peoples, they want university services to be Indigenised, they want to see Aboriginal staff inside universities. (Lester-Irabinna Rigney)

#### *Accountability*

A mandate to evaluate the accountability of governments and the academy was regularly identified as an important indicator to inform positive changes in relation to Indigenous higher education. There was consensus that government accountability had generally been quite poor.

One of the reasons why this world movement of Indigenous educators has taken place with the International Board of Accreditation, World Indigenous Research Alliance, etcetera, etcetera, one of the reasons why that has occurred is to address the very issues that we're talking about. If governments across the world aren't going to be responsive to acknowledging that there is a need for those particular type of things [cultural standards] to be addressed, if the governments weren't going to do it, the Indigenous people themselves have done it and done it well. (Grace)

In addition, there was a high level of scepticism towards the ability of government agencies to evaluate their own Indigenous higher education policies and programmes:

I think [DPMC staff names] need some help with setting up their evaluation framework by the looks of it because they've put in these things like employment and the curriculum and all those things. How are they really going to evaluate that it's working? (Leslie)

Evaluating the cultural competence, and respective accountability, of university executives was also mentioned frequently by participants, particularly in relation to Indigenous engagement and advocating for system changes aimed at improving Indigenous higher education:

how do I build the capacity of teaching and learning Deans in all disciplines across the country? I'm running workshops around professional development on how to actually embed Indigenous content in their curriculum … And so a lot of the time, people with spheres of influence in Higher Ed are not engaging in Indigenous spaces. So, if you were to look at any of the organisation behaviour literature, that is something that—you need these people to actually create change in an organisation. (Zac)

Some also extended this discussion to question whether executives appropriately modelled behaviours in accordance with institutional strategies, inferring that a lack of accountability for those people was problematic.

#### *Promoting Cultural Standards and Accreditation*

The embedding of cultural standards into the work of universities was seen as important. The World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) has already developed a global Indigenous-led higher education accreditation process (Malina-Wright, Robertson, & Moeke, 2010). This accreditation is explicitly about cultural standards and protocols. The Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle and the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) are the only two tertiary providers in Australia with this accreditation. The accreditation process typically involves Indigenous scholars from across different countries rigorously assessing cultural standards from an Indigenous standpoint. This is aptly summarised by Zac:

In terms of the WINHEC evaluation and accreditation, it goes—one of the things that stands out to me around when they do the evaluations is actual presence. That Indigenous business and people are present everywhere … And it involves site visits by three academics, from they usually get one from the Pacific, North America, one from Europe, and one from your home [country]. So, you get three different perspectives in terms of the evaluation. It's quite rigorous in what they do … I think BIITE and the Wollotuka [Institute] at the University of Newcastle are the only two. (Zac)

It was emphasised that expectations in relation to cultural standards should be a whole-of-university venture, rather than limited to an Indigenous-specific school or service within a university.

There are elements of the [cultural] standards that you would say that—the whole institution—the university should be part of cultural competency as well. (Kathy)

At present, the current Tertiary Education Quality Standards Authority (TEQSA) standards only address Indigenous higher education in relation to the recruitment and admission of Indigenous students and education policies and practices that support Indigenous people. There are notable gaps in relation to teaching and curricula, research, and corporate governance. Reflections such as this emphasise that there could be a much stronger focus on Indigenous-framed cultural standards moving forward; and that the Indigenous higher sector has a genuine interest in working with TEQSA to advance this agenda. Indeed, NATSIHEC's recent report talks about the need for the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training, TEQSA and NATSIHEC to work together to determine whole-of-university quality standards and accountabilities in relation to measuring the quality of Indigenous student and staff participation in universities (Buckskin et al., 2018). It also outlines that strategies to incorporate IKs within universities should be included as a measure of quality in the provision of higher education (Buckskin et al., 2018).

#### *Providing a Culturally Safe Space/Environment*

It has long been argued that the provision of culturally safe spaces is an important strategy for supporting Indigenous students to grow and thrive at university (Hall & Wilkes, 2015). Generally speaking, participants indicated that more effort was needed to appropriately evaluate the effectiveness and efficacy of culturally safe spaces and environments in higher education settings.

If this [university] is not an inclusive space, and it's not a safe space in terms of the classrooms, walking through the corridors, walking across campuses, you know Indigenous students don't come if they don't feel like that that's okay. (Stephanie Gilbert)

There was a strong sentiment that if Indigenous students felt unwelcome or that their cultural identity was threatened in any way, then the university was not providing a culturally safe environment.

You can't offer people a culturally safe study and work environment and then expect them to compromise something about their cultural integrity to such a degree that it has no relevance at all to our people. So that's why this whole concept of cultural competency is very critical to research, to teaching, to student supports, to engagement, to partnerships and pathways … when you think that you have to compromise your cultural integrity to either get ahead or be patted on the head or to be successful in your work —everyone has to compromise to a degree but when you compromise to the extent that you almost abort the reality of what it is like to be an Aboriginal person in this country, then that's not integrity, that's you selling your soul, your cultural soul, just to get ahead. And that's a dilemma, that is a big dilemma for a lot of our people whether it's in higher ed or health or whatever (Grace).

#### **Conclusion**

This chapter has shown that cultural competence is a foundation concept for strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education in Australia. The guiding principles of UA's *Indigenous Cultural Competency Framework* were clearly very important to the Indigenous scholars interviewed in this research. However, they were insufficient in addressing all the issues and concerns raised by Indigenous scholars. Additional markers of cultural competence within an evaluation context could potentially include adopting an explicit Indigenous lens; championing Indigenous-focused curricula (preferably delivered by Indigenous scholars); developing explicit cultural standards that are assessed through formal accreditation processes; increasing accountability of governments and university executives to prioritise cultural competence; and providing a culturally safe place/environment in university settings.

A key challenge for moving this agenda forward is addressing the "know-do gap" (Bacchi, 2008). It is clear that Australian universities are currently struggling with the implementation and evaluation of activities aimed at promoting cultural competence within Indigenous higher education contexts. An important strategy for overcoming this barrier is to privilege Indigenous worldviews in identifying workable solutions. Indeed, Indigenous methods, concepts and standpoints could potentially revolutionise the purpose of monitoring and evaluation in Indigenous higher education, and this could be used to frame what should be monitored and evaluated, when, why, how and by whom. Such an approach should embrace the grassroots principles of Indigenous data sovereignty. This would provide a useful mechanism to build a more culturally responsive evaluation culture in universities across Australia.

**Acknowledgements** We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Kellie Pollard and Fiona Shalley in supporting key aspects of this research. We would also like to thank the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education for funding the research presented in this chapter. Importantly, we wish to thank the multiple Indigenous scholars who willingly shared their insights about evaluation in Indigenous higher education in Australia.

#### **References**


education? In J. Frawley, S. Larkin, & J. Smith (Eds.), *Indigenous pathways, transitions and participation in higher education: From policy to practice*. Springer Nature: Singapore.


**James A. Smith** is a Father Frank Flynn Fellow at Menzies School of Health Research. He is an Adjunct Professorial Research Fellow at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE), and a former NCSEHE Equity Fellow. He has worked in Indigenous health and education contexts in the Northern Territory for over a decade, including a program of research relating to Indigenous higher education.

**Kim Robertson** is a Senior Analyst, Indigenous Policies and Programs at Charles Darwin University. She has a long professional history in Indigenous affairs in the public service and 10 years in the university sector. A Murri woman of mixed heritage from North Queensland, Kim is passionate about improving intercultural understanding in Australia, and is currently undertaking a Ph.D. about public policies and Aboriginal women's resilience.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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## **Chapter 8 Indigenist Leadership in Academia: Towards an Aspirational Model of Mindful Servant Leadership**

**Kerrie E. Doyle, Catherine Hungerford, Chris Pitt, Paul Saunders, and Kyar Wilkey**

#### **Introduction**

The tertiary education landscape in Australia has changed over the past decade, in line with developments in other occupational settings and environments across the western world (Bienen, 2012). Australian universities are now more performancebased (Guthrie & Neumann, 2007); have insecure, non-government sources of funding (Moll & Hoque, 2011); place a strong emphasis on globalisation (Stromquist & Monkman, 2014); and have modified the way in which they support Indigenous programs (Gunstone, 2008). These kinds of changes suggest the need for academics, including Indigenous academics, to demonstrate strong leadership and management skills and abilities. For Indigenous academics, these requirements are in addition to the challenges related to 'being black in white spaces' (see Asmar, Mercier, & Page, 2009; White, 2009), thereby increasing the pressure not only to lead but also to be seen to lead. There is a need, then, to develop indigenist leadership models that is rigorously based on evidence and best practice.

Leadership is a concept that has arguably existed since humans were required to work together to achieve a common goal. Even so, 'leadership' is a contested term (Sun & Anderson, 2012), a situation that suggests diverse contexts require different leadership styles (Voon, Lo, Ngui, & Ayob, 2011). Indeed, to be an effective

K. E. Doyle (B)

C. Hungerford

C. Pitt

P. Saunders · K. Wilkey Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: AuntyKerrie.Doyle@westernsydney.edu.au

School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia

Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Clinical Academic Group, University of NSW, Kensington, Australia

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_8

leader requires consideration of the salient concepts informing leadership theories developed by recognised experts (Dotlich, Noel, & Walker, 2011). Consideration of these theories will also allow Indigenous individuals to develop a personalised model of academic and community leadership.

Merging professional and community leadership styles, however, may be problematic for some Indigenous people (White, 2010). For example, Indigenous communities and places, like other colonised places, can sometimes be violent, contested spaces (Cheers et al., 2006; McCalman, Tsey, Kitau, & McGinty, 2012; McIlwaine & Moser, 2001), that need effective, life-affirming leaders. Leadership of such communities is usually an all-hours commitment with pursuant burnout occurring in individual leaders (Santoro & Reid, 2006). Recognising the exponential stress of 'leading' in a community as well as at work, we, therefore, argue there is a need for an Indigenous leadership model that is aspirational.

If one concurs with leadership theorists such as MacBeath and Dempster (2008) that leadership is a learned trait or set of behaviours, then becoming an effective leader requires consideration of a range of factors. These factors include the different types of leadership styles, together with the motivations of leaders and also the communities produced by the teams. Reviewing leadership styles that could fit in an organisation or community would allow potential leaders to distil the skills and behaviours of already established effective leaders, and thereby create an individuated, indigenist leadership model that matches personal resources to professional requirements.

#### **Theoretical Review**

Leadership is a complex function of other organisational, social, personal, and cultural processes (Boldon, 2004). Leadership depends on a process of influence, and the ability of a leader to inspire their team to work towards group goals, with researchers still undecided as to whether leadership is a personality trait, a positional power issue, a philosophical argument, or even an embodiment issue (Grint, 2004).

Leadership theorists often differ when discussing styles and models, but most agree that all leaders must have a set of demonstrable values and behaviours. These values and behaviours include: being cooperative and optimistic, with a capacity to lead by example (reflecting social motivation) (Gächter, Nosenzo, Renner, & Sefton, 2012); having trustworthiness, integrity, emotional intelligence (Goleman, Welch, & Welch, 2012); possessing the capacity to actively contribute as well as being at ease with power and courageous (Buchele, 2011); being good at maintaining relationships, having vision and being forward-looking, possessing a combination of behaviours that show the leader is inspiring, decisive, able to provide direction, honest, competent (Kouzes & Posner, 2011); and finally, being authentic, altruistic, collective (Ciulla, 2013). Besides providing this list of values, which arguably characterises the most successful or prospective leaders some theorists also provide lists of prescriptive recommendations for action (Bolden, Hawkins, Gosling, & Taylor, 2011; Detsky, 2010; Sinclair, 2014). Such lists can, therefore, seem daunting. At the


**Table 8.1** Core values of Indigenous communities (after Shannon et al., 2005)

same time, however, they also suggest commonalities—for example, the characteristics of courage, integrity, emotional intelligence (not necessarily expressed as such, but able to be so labelled) are common, with some theorists arguing that such values can be practiced and learned (Sinkula, Baker, & Noordewier, 1997).

While it is well recognised that Indigenous Australians are not homogenous (Doyle, 2011), shared values have been identified across many Indigenous Australian communities (Jamieson et al., 2012; Shannon, Shibasaki, & Australian Health Ethics Committee 2005; Walker, Fredericks, Mills, & Anderson, 2014). These shared values are also reflected in the national ethical guidelines for research in Indigenous communities (see Fletcher, Shannon, & Dunbar, 2008), providing a rigorous framework to guide any proposed leadership model. The values are listed in Table 8.1.

In this context, it is important to note that experts in indigenist research claim that localised models of research, suited to the context and community of interest, constitute a methodologically sound approach to the conduct of research (Foley, 2003; Martin, 2003; Nakata, 1998; Rigney, 2006a, 2006b; Smith, 1999; West, Stewart, Foster, & Usher, 2012). It could well be argued, then, that it is equally as appropriate to modify indigenist leadership models to suit the context, community and of course, the leader.

This type of model creation usually builds on existing models. For this reason, it is also necessary to consider appropriate styles of leadership for Indigenous peoples. Bolden et al. (2011), for instance, describe the genealogy of Eastern and Westernstyle leadership philosophies from Lao Tze and Socrates, to modern presidents of the USA, and by doing so, illustrate how the adaption of leadership models occurs to suit cultures. Even so, the process of distilling the core components of a leadership model to create an individualised model can be a traumatic experience for a novice leader and is described by Bennis and Thomas (2002) as a crucible, where the refining aspects of experiences of diversity that transform individuals into strong leaders.

Even so, there is a missing space when considering Indigenous leadership models, which perhaps explains why some indigenist theorists use their own experience, together with community morés and opinions, to create their models. For example, Sinclair (2007) uses her leadership experience as an Indigenous Australian academic to create a theoretical framework for women in leadership positions; Fredericks (2009) shares her experiences and in doing so demonstrates her epistemology of Indigenous peoples' leadership participation in universities; and White (2009) completed doctoral research on the journey to leadership for university-educated Indigenous Australian women. Each of these women created a modified leadership style best suited to their situational and contextual needs. Given the evidence of melding or creating models best suited to the leader, community and context, it is, therefore, appropriate to consider motivation to lead in a manner that gives rise to success and thereby create evidence to foster model creation.

#### *Motivated to Lead: Setting the Scene*

Action is often preferable to inaction (Bolden, 2004). However, *re*action without an understanding of the underlying principles and assumptions about leadership demonstrates low emotional intelligence, reduces a leader's effectiveness and risks causing damage (Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter, & Buckley, 2003) to an organisation or community. Leadership can, therefore, be seen as a key enabler for community and organisation success, and a measure of that enablement is the level of motivation of individuals or groups, in communities and organisations, to achieve success.

Studies of achievement motivation focus on either the individual motives of achievers (McClelland, 1987) or engagers (Attridge, 2009), or the motives of persons reacting 'to' the achievements of others (Feather, 1994; Lockwood, 2007). However, it is also important to consider the reactions to, and of, the leader in successful organisations and communities, and how the leader responds to the reaction of their group members (Carr, 2006). The reaction of the community to the perceived success of a leader is pivotal to the social and emotional wellbeing of the whole community. For example, a celebratory response to a successful leader, however defined, would indicate the community members have a healthy self-esteem with a sense of control based within the community, and collective emotional resilience (Müller & Turner, 2010).

#### *Social Identity and Workplace Culture*

Leading a successful team or community group requires an understanding of culture (Jogulu, 2010), not simply ethnicity. Being able to unpack the cultural morés of an organisation or community is quintessential to successfully achieving one's aims and requires an understanding of the role of social identity (Tajfel, 2010) in group formation and maintenance (Schmid, Hewstone, & Al Ramiah, 2011). For example, personal success of one group member can attract hostility from other group members (Rundle-Gardiner & Carr, 2005), and a leader is usually seen as having some degree of personal success (Ciulla, 2013). This can be problematic in Indigenous communities where lateral violence is endemic (Wingard, 2010), given that one of the triggers of such violence is the 'tall poppy syndrome' (Gooda, 2007; Langton, 2008). Where tension as a function of this syndrome exists in workplace and communities, acts of psychological violence on individuals who were supposedly 'big-noting' (or bragging about) themselves can occur as an act of covert lateral violence (Johnson & Rea, 2009), and are a risk to an individual's mental wellbeing (Turney, 2003). It is axiomatic that psychological distress in any sense is not profitable, on any level, for any organisation or community, therefore an ability to measure and identify workplace culture is an appropriate beginning to a leadership journey.

#### *The Motivational Gravity Grid: Measuring the Culture of 'Around Here'*

Measuring workplace culture is discourse–dependent (Schnurr, 2008) as researchers measure a variable or outcome of interest to themselves, such as religiosity and work performance (Petchsawang & Duchon, 2012); gender and power (Stainback, Ratliff, & Roscigno, 2011); or ethical/unethical behaviours (Parker & Aitken, 2011). An effective measure of a workplace's global culture is Carr's (1995) measure of motivational gravity. The Motivational Grid Measure (see Fig. 8.1) is useful for organisational or community reflection, and to diagnose issues in a team (Carr & MacLachlan, 1997). Importantly, the pictorial nature of the tool has long been validated in organisational settings (see, for example, Akuamoah-Boateng et al., 2003; Carr, Maclachlan, Zimba, & Bowa, 1995; Smith & Carr, 1997; Munro, Schumaker & Carr, 2014). The Motivational Gravity grid measures attitudes towards achievement motivation for team members. Gravity can emanate from bosses (superiors, managers), as push-down/pull-up activities; or from peers and subordinates, expressed as pull-down/push-up activities. This creates a 2 × 2 grid where respondents can mark the predominant culture of their community of interest. These activities were caricatured in each quadrant, making it a visual tool where respondents mark his or her perceived 'hot spot' (Carr, 2006; Carr & MacLachlan, 1997; Carr et al. 1995).

To gather evidence, promote discussion, and enable the development of a model of leadership best suited to local setting, workplace/community culture and needs to the leaders, teams and community, a quality improvement project was proposed, designed and implemented, with the aim to reviewing associated communication and motivational practices in a university setting. The decision was made to incorporate the Motivational Gravity Grid (Carr & Mac Laughlan, 1997) into the project, with the purpose of informing findings and supporting development of the leadership model. Low-risk ethical approval was obtained from the university.

**Fig. 8.1** The motivational gravity grid (Carr & MacLachlan, 1997). Used with permission of the authors, 2019

#### **Method**

The quality improvement project was undertaken using a mixed-methods approach, utilising quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative part of the project utilised a Qualtrics questionnaire (e-survey), with a view to supporting ease of data capture and protecting confidentiality. It was anticipated that quantitative results would assist with providing an objective structure for the indigenist model of leadership. Likewise, the qualitative component included in-depth interviews, with a view to inducing findings through an analysis guided by specific objectives (Thomas, 2016)—in this case, identifying themes of indigenist leadership—and it was anticipated that the inductive theming of the finding would allow the findings to emerge from the frequent, dominant or significant codes inherent in the data (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006).

The quantitative component of the research, the e-survey, was advertised on the university quality website. Using the resource shown in Fig. 8.2, participants were asked to put a spot where they preferred the culture (Y) to sit, and where they considered their workplace culture (X) was best placed. Participants were then asked to consider how their position at work placed them in the culture of their community, or workplace/community (O) intersect. In order to maintain confidentiality, the only demographics captured were gender and Indigeneity.

**Fig. 8.2** Perceived workplace cultures of respondents (*n* = 10)

Participants in the qualitative component of the research, the in-depth interviews, were drawn from volunteers who participated in the e-survey, with recruitment derived from a simple question at the end of the questionnaire about willingness to be interviewed and a request for contact details. Questions were open-ended and participants were asked to explore the characteristics of an effective Indigenous leader. With consent, the responses were recorded, transcribed (de-identified) and analysed thematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The interviews were open-ended, and participants were asked to explore the qualities of an effective Indigenous leader. Interviews were conducted using a narrative, unstructured method, considered appropriate for interviewing Indigenous people (Boffa, King, McMullin, & Long, 2011).

#### **Findings: Motivational Grid**

#### *Demographics*

Given this was a quality improvement project with a small team, there were only 10 respondents (*n* = 6 Indigenous academics and *n* = 4 Indigenous staff, *M* = 4, *F* = 6).

#### *Perceived Workplace Culture*

While 100% (*n* = 10) of respondents preferred to work in a pull-up/push culture, only 50% (five respondents) considered their workplace culture to be one where the supervisor and peers of that workplace demonstrated pull-up/push-up behaviours. Of these five, two had an Indigenous supervisor. One respondent felt the workplace culture was pull-up/pull-down and the remaining three considered they worked in the most non-productive workplace culture of pull-down/push-down. Respondents had differing experiences of the work/community culture intersect, with 30% (*n* = 3) reporting a pull-up/push-up culture, 20% (*n* = 2) reporting a pull-up/pull-down culture, and the remaining 30% (*n* = 3) reporting negative cultures (see Fig. 8.2). Participants were invited to participate in a narrative interview to consider the data. Of the 10 participants, six agreed to be interviewed.

#### **Findings: E-survey**

Six Indigenous participants of the e-survey agreed to be interviewed. Interviews were conducted using open-ended questions and a narrative, unstructured method, considered appropriate for interviewing Indigenous people (Boffa et al., 2011). The interviewer was an Indigenous woman academic from a different educational institution. Participants were shown the MG Grid (Carr & MacLachlan, 1997) (see Fig. 8.1), given the results of the survey, then asked to describe the results from their perspective including consideration of the types of behaviours that might have informed the answers. Interview responses were coded into three main themes. These themes are now discussed, in turn.

#### *Theme One: Gravity of Non-indigenous Colleagues*

The first theme was labelled 'gravity of non-Indigenous colleagues' and described the push-down/pull-down culture. Respondents identifying the push-down/pull-factors revealed that the pull-down culture was a function of non-Indigenous colleagues appearing to be unsupportive of any perceived 'benefit' or promotion of an Indigenous person. The push-down culture was due to the lack of cultural proficiency, or understanding of Indigenous culture, in the workplace. While the change in university structure in most Australian universities has seen the embedding of Indigenous academics in faculties rather than Indigenous centres (Australian Government, 2011), this has led to most schools or colleges incorporating a single Indigenous academic. Working as a single representative of one's ethnicity increases the public gaze towards Indigenous people and, as all universities are microcosms of any society, the pushdown/pull-down result might be a function of covet racism from non-Indigenous colleagues and the system itself.

#### *Theme 2: Gravity of Community*

The second theme was also push-down/pull-down and labelled as the 'gravity of community'. The push-down scores were predominantly a function of the home community. Some Indigenous colleagues were beset by issues of lateral violence in the community and felt that community would resent their success, rather than celebrate it, and this gravity affected their motivation to achieve at their workplace. The 'push-down' scores were a function of the home community, with few exceptions in the workplace. This confirms that, for Indigenous people, there is a blurring of work or professional and community boundaries (see Kowanko et al., 2009), leading to burnout, which risks perceptions of Indigenous people having poorer personal and team motivation (Taylor & Barling, 2004).

#### *Theme 3: Gravity of Indigenous Supervisors*

The thirdtheme was a mixed response and labelled 'gravity of Indigenous supervisors'. While one Indigenous supervisor was an experienced manager and his team scored him as pull-up, the other two Indigenous leaders (not based in the university, but still considered part of the 'workplace culture' by participants) were scored as push-down. Two of the six Indigenous academics had a pull-up Indigenous supervisor, and these respondents believed that supervisor created an encouraging culture. For example, a respondent stated that she had frequently been encouraged to apply for higher grades and was supported in her attempts. The other respondent noted that the supervisor had actively sought out scholarships for her. They felt he 'stood-up' for them. The other respondent with her Indigenous supervisor, had a different experience, and felt she was being 'bullied' by the supervisor. This respondent reported a push-down culture that overwhelmed any push-up culture from her colleagues. An example of pull-down was bullying, and this respondent gave an example of being denied cultural leave or being told that applying for promotion was a 'waste of her time'.

Having Indigenous people in supervisory roles introduces another layer of complexity into the mix of work and community cultures. It might be expected that Indigenous people who gain a place of power in an organisation will develop a pull-up approach to their in-group, however, it is not always the case. The style of each of these leaders powerfully created the workplace culture for their teams, suggesting that an effective leader is able to filter out negativity in order to have a productive team, while maintaining their cultural morés.

#### **Findings: Interviews**

Interviewing the six Indigenous participants to identify the push/pull factors revealed that the push-down/pull-down culture existed for these participants as a result of a lack of support or cultural understanding from non-Indigenous colleagues and the workplace, as well as the issue of perceived lateral violence in the community.

#### *Preferred Core Values of Indigenous Leaders*

During these interviews, in order to clarify some of the themes, respondents were asked what qualities their supervisor demonstrated, or would demonstrate, an Indigenous pull-up culture. Responses included 'they would be there for us', 'he put us first—before the organisation,' and 'she should stick up for me'. Asked for an example of push-down behaviour from supervisors, one respondent reported her supervisor said she 'wasn't black enough' to have an identified position.

Specifically, participants were invited to create and rank the qualities of their supervisor, or the qualities they would prefer their supervisors to have. Participants were invited to write the qualities they aspired to see in their leaders on post-it notes then place them in order of importance, or preference, on a shared board. These qualities were distilled down to five values: bravery, honesty, willingness to commit, liking the staff, and knowledge. Indigeneity was not seen as a value but, rather, a characteristic of individuals. Of the five values, the six respondents agreed that the four most salient were bravery, honesty, helping in any circumstance, and liking the staff. After discussion, these values were re-labelled as *courage, integrity, service, and unconditional positive regard.* These values reinforce the interconnectedness that underpins all Indigenous wellbeing (Moreton-Robinson, 2013).

#### *Preferred Behaviours of Indigenous Leaders*

Participants were invited to interrogate the findings to identify behaviours that leaders could engage in, which would demonstrate these four core values. Participants considered that it takes courage to defend team members or take their side when conflict occurred with non-Indigenous staff. Leaders could serve their team or staff members by recognising that Indigenous peoples often felt culturally lonely, working in isolation in the academy and, as such, the need to promote resilience by preventing Indigenous staff from being over-utilised as cultural encyclopedia. Participants also noted that demonstrating integrity would include keeping one's word. Unconditional positive regard is similar to interconnectedness, particularly salient in the need for Indigenous leader to both be seen as leaders and servants of a community (Laverick, Hill, Akenson, & Corrie, 2009). Interestingly, these values and behaviours suggested many similarities to servant leadership. It was therefore decided to explore the appropriateness of exploring this model of leadership for Indigenous leaders.

#### **Discussion**

In this section, we discuss the findings of the research in light of the research literature. This includes the notions of servant leadership and mindfulness. Through these lenses, we also look forward to an indigenist aspirational model of mindful leadership.

#### *Servant Leadership*

Servant leadership was introduced in the 1970s by Greenleaf (Greenleaf, 1977). He recognised that individuals are products of their history, a sentiment that resonates with postcolonial peoples (Bailey, 2012). Cultural congruence is important for Indigenous people in any leadership position (Naquin et al., 2008), and Spears' (2004) 10 characteristics of servant leadership—listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community—appear to be a good fit for the findings of this study of courage, integrity, service, and unconditional positive regard. A 'social identity' approach (after Tajfel, 2010; Ciulla, 2013; Bolden et al., 2011) to leadership also posits that people will not be regarded as leaders unless they are perceived to be working on behalf of the community, helping to frame the identity of the community, and putting in place structures and processes that further the interests of the community (Bolden et al., 2012).

Academic leaders need to be able to demonstrate and model independence and develop expertise in their academic field (Vilkinas & Ladyshewsky, 2012), with such modelling a means of developing a deputation for leadership. This is what reputations are built on. However, currently, no leader in academia can avoid management responsibilities (Middlehurst, 2013), with academic management requiring a different skill set to leadership capabilities. For example, academic managers must have the ability to define objectives that meet the organisational, professional and individual goals; and organise and allocate academic tasks and processes. Such work requires a working knowledge of academic management practices.

According to Bolden et al. (2012, p. 2) the integration of management and leadership in academic settings requires leaders to do the following:

a) provide and protect an environment that enables productive academic work; b) support and develop a sense of shared academic values and identity; c) accomplish "boundary spanning" on behalf of individuals and work groups (boundary spanning here refers to the ability to create opportunities for external relatedness, getting things done via institutional administrations, mentoring colleagues into wider spheres of engagement.

This demonstrates the importance of linking the needs of community and the wants of workplace which, in turn, requires Indigenous individuals to walk 'with a foot in both camps.' Bolden et al.'s (2012) recommendations for effective academic leadership include being able to sit under a servant leadership model that comprises social identity theory. For example, a servant leadership model that promotes selfleadership (Bolden et al., 2011) and still emphasises engagement with individuals external to the primary setting of the workplace might suit Indigenous leaders. While individuals must be seen to fight for a common cause, offer inspiration and/or represent exemplary intellectual and professional standards (Bolden et al., 2012) in order to inspire followship, this does not mean that leaders hold leadership all the time and in all circumstances. Leadership can be located in teams, for example, especially in an enabling environment with a sense of purpose and boundary spanning (Bolden et al., 2012).

Bolden et al.'s (2012) recommendations for effective academic leadership include being able to sit under a servant leadership model that comprises social identity theory. For example, a servant leadership model that promotes self-leadership (Bolden et al., 2011) and still emphasises engagement with individuals external to the primary setting of the workplace might suit Indigenous leaders. While individuals must be seen to fight for a common cause, offer inspiration, and/or represent exemplary intellectual and professional standards (Bolden et al., 2012) to inspire followship, this does not mean that leaders also hold leadership at all times and in all circumstances. Leadership can be located in teams, for example, especially in an enabling environment, with a sense of purpose and boundary spanning (Bolden et al., 2012).

Additional recommendations by Bolden et al. (2012) include the notion of leadership plasticity, which includes Kenny's (2006) notions of flexibility in leadership and being moulded to the tasks required. This also involves uses the potential or existing leaders in the community, while leaders need not be in a position of leadership (Kenny, 2006). Importantly, as a First Nations Canadian Indigenous woman, Kenny created a grounded theory of leadership that allowed her cultural morés to inform her leadership styles (Kenny, 2004). She agrees with Bolden et al. (2012) that leadership is not necessarily based on the individual but also can shift to other community members as the need arises (Kenny, 2012). A leader immersed in the philosophy of 'servant' would also understand this. At the same time, considering personal values in community and organisational settings is also an example of mindfulness.

#### *Mindfulness*

Mindfulness is a psychotherapeutic concept designed to encourage people to "be present" (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Being present means to be in the moment with what is occurring around you. Being present is also a very Indigenous concept, as it is the same as 'kanyini,' one of the pillars of Indigenous culture (Fernandes, 2009); kanyini is a concept from the Pitjanjatjara people that means 'holding everything,' or 'keeping everything together' (Priest, King, Brown, Nangala, & Nangala, 2007). 'Being present as a leader is considered to be mindful leadership' (Pipe & Bortz, 2009).

Sinclair (2014) describes mindful leadership as 'mobilising and supporting others in a way that is deeply present, connected' (p. 10), and sums up mindful leadership as leading with 'less ego.' This also aligns with a servant leadership style, as both styles rely on 'being with others in ways that does not use them for [one's] own purposes' (Sinclair, 2014: 12). Mindful leadership considers the self and the psychological skill set of leading, such as the ability to influence, intra/interpersonal and consulting skills (Burke, Cho, & Wright, 2008). In this way, self becomes an instrument of effective leadership.

Guthrie and Neumann (2007) encapsulate effective leadership into nine ways of being (being present, aware, calm, focused, clear, equanimous, positive, compassionate, and impeccable). Utilising the essentials of a mindful, servant leadership model with Indigenous culture requires vision and cultural knowledge in order to get the best behavioural fit for leader, workplace, and community.

Kotter (1996) defined vision, which was identified above as an essential component of being a mindful servant-leader, as aspirational. While aspirational leadership models are not novel (e.g. Snedden, 1930; Murphy, 1941), they are forward-looking (Koning & Waistall, 2012), and require leaders to have a vision for their community and/or organisation. They are also allied to ethical behaviours in organisations (Koning & Waistall, 2012), less concerned with individual success than with building and maintaining relationships and supporting development of positive cultures. This includes being able to be shared in such a way as to leave people desirous of being part of that future (Graetz, 2000). Combining aspirational or visionary leadership with servant models, then, provides an important means of reinforces Sinclair's (2014) model of mindful leadership, particularly in relation to mobilising and supporting others in a way that is deeply present and connected.

#### *Towards an Indigenist Aspirational Model of Mindful Leadership*

Using epistemology from indigenist research, where a localised model is necessary (Rigney, 2001; 2006a, 2006b), distilling theories of leadership from Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics results in an indigenist model of leadership that is based on core values that wrap around the core activities of leading. In a similar fashion to indigenist research with Indigenous issues, an indigenist leadership model for Indigenous people, or for people working with Indigenous communities, will add to the effectiveness of that leadership.

The proposed model has the interview participants' preferred core values of a leader—courage, integrity, service and unconditional positive regard—informing the behaviours of indigenist servant leadership, with the individual leader's mindfulness attributes at the centre of the leader's conduct (see Fig. 8.3). Overall, the model is a set of attributes, skills and behaviours that leaders need to aspire to acquire.

#### *Additional Benefits of an Indigenist Aspirational Model*

Leading as a function of mindfulness will create push-up/pull-up motivational grids. Using this model will foster individuals to be the best they can be and encourage community cohesion by celebrating success, whoever owns it. In this way, leadership models can be vehicles of social inclusion. Social exclusion is a reliable

**Fig. 8.3** An indigenist model of leadership

predictor of psychological distress (Butterworth, Leach, Pirkis, & Kelaher, 2012), so opening up leadership positions by creating mentoring opportunities (e.g. rotating chair positions at community meetings), keeping processes transparent, and organisational structures 'flat', can create formal and informal learning opportunities, and incidental succession planning for community leadership.

#### **Conclusion**

The purpose of leadership is to work with others to improve the situation, whatever that situation may be. This indigenist aspirational model of modified servant leadership and applied mindfulness is aligned with cultural protocols (service, suggesting collectivist values), professional and personal ethics (integrity, courage) and an understanding of the need to create safe spaces for Indigenous peoples in academic settings, by creating unconditional positive regard. Indigenous academic leaders may find this model useful, as it allows one to maintain cultural integrity, and fulfil the obligations and responsibilities of an organisation, and better serve their Indigenous colleagues and communities. Further research that explores the challenges of merging workplace and indigenous expectations for indigenous leaders, and that modifies leadership models to best fit indigenous leaders and communities is necessary.

#### **References**


**Kerrie E. Doyle** is the inaugural Professor of Indigenous Health in the School of Medicine at Western Sydney University, and leader of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Clinical Academic Group at the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise. A social scientist and mental health clinician, she has over 40 years' experience working in Indigenous health and communities and has various research interests including her collaboration in the Global Burden of Disease project.

**Catherine Hungerford** is Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Charles Sturt University. This School is located on multiple rural campuses, with over 2000 students and more than 60 staff, from diverse backgrounds. She has a keen interest in leadership models and culture and has worked extensively with Aboriginal Australians.

**Chris Pitt** is a Project Officer within Maridulu Budyari Gumal and works closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. He has qualifications in psychology and public health. His research interest is in the field of health informatics, and Indigenous Health.

**Paul Saunders** is a Biripi man with connections to the Kamilaroi nation. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and is currently undertaking a Master of Public Health (MPH), Western Sydney University. Paul is a research fellow for Indigenous Health at THRI and also an Honorary Fellow of Ngarruwan Ngadju, the University of Wollongong's First People's Health and Wellbeing Research Centre.

**Kyar Wilkey** is a Ngarrindjeri woman from South Australia. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours). She is a Research Assistant at Western Sydney University with the Translational Health Research Institute and Maridulu Budyari Gumal. Kyar's research interests relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.

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## **Chapter 9 Racism a Social Determinant of Indigenous Health: Yarning About Cultural Safety and Cultural Competence Strategies to Improve Indigenous Health**

**Juanita Sherwood and Janine Mohamed**

#### **Introduction**

This chapter includes a record of the opening session of the first National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) conference held in Australia in 2018 and is a yarn between the two of us. We are both Aboriginal women with qualifications in nursing and are members of Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM). Our respective work in advocating for better health outcomes for our people has been strongly informed by the philosophy and praxis of cultural safety. We have attempted to deal with the legacy of prejudice and racism that remains very active across the health sector in all professions. We have both observed first-hand the impact of how culturally unsafe practice can affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals, as well as their families and communities.

#### *Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives*

Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives is the sole peak body that represents Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives along with advocating on the behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples'

J. Sherwood (B)

Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: juanita.sherwood@sydney.edu.au

J. Mohamed The Lowitja Institute, Carlton, VIC, Australia

health equity. In February 2018, CATSINaM and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) made history by releasing a joint statement on cultural safety and respectful care which included an announcement about developing this principle in the new code of conduct for nurses and code of conduct for midwives (NMBA, 2018). Janine, her team and members were able to make this a reality. She said:

Systemic racism contributes to poor health outcomes experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. By providing health care in a culturally safe and respectful way, and contributing to culturally safe and respectful health systems, nurses and midwives can make a real contribution to health equity for all Australians. (NMBA, 2018)

#### *National Centre for Cultural Competence*

The NCCC was established at The University of Sydney in 2014 and became active in 2015. The centre built its philosophy upon cultural competence from an Indigenous standpoint, with the primary aim of improving the knowledge of all Australians about First Peoples who have cared for and sustained this continent for at least 65,000 years. Cultural competence has been rolled out across The University of Sydney via the development of online modules, workshops and leadership programs, to support the university's aim to educate and graduate their students with the capability of cultural competence.

The University of Sydney took the fundamental step towards addressing cultural competence, as informed by the *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competence in Australian Universities*(UA, 2011a), and the guiding principles for developing Indigenous cultural competence in Australian Universities (UA, 2011b). This approach was undertaken to build the skills, attitudes and respectful behaviours among staff and students to develop cultural competence capabilities (Sherwood & Russell, 2018). The NCCC became the peak body within the university to develop the philosophy to be responsive to its 2016–2020 Strategic Plan and create resources and grow leaders in cultural competence from students, academics and professional staff.

#### *Cultural Safety*

Cultural safety is a strategy for equitable access to health care and health improvement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The philosophy and pedagogy were first developed by M¯aori nurse and scholar Dr. Irahapeti Ramsden. Dr. Ramsden acknowledged that her non-Indigenous peers were very ignorant about how the brutal history of colonisation affected her peoples, and this lack of knowledge impacted on the way they delivered health care to M¯aori peoples:

The omission of the colonial history of New Zealand in the basic state education system had led to a serious deficit in the knowledge of citizens as to the cause and effect outcomes

#### 9 Racism a Social Determinant of Indigenous Health: Yarning … 161

of colonialism. Without a sound knowledge base, it seemed to me that those citizens who became nurses and midwives had little information of substance on which to build their practice among this seriously at-risk group. (Ramsden, 2002, cited in Fredericks & Best, 2014, p. 53)

This recognition led Dr. Ramsden to recommend decolonisation as a means for nurses to reflect on their bias and lack of knowledge and take personal responsibility for becoming better informed. She also recommended nurses acknowledge the power they hold when working with patients whose worldview of health is not one of mainstream medicine. She defined a three-step process for nurses to provide culturally safe health care for M¯aori clients:

**Cultural awareness** is a beginning step towards understanding that there is a difference. Many people undergo courses designed to sensitise them to formal ritual rather than the emotional, social, economic and political context in which people exist.

**Cultural sensitivity** alerts students to the legitimacy of difference and begins a process of self-exploration as the powerful bearers of their own life experience and realities and the effect this may have on others.

**Cultural safety** is an outcome of nursing and midwifery education that enables safe service defined by those who receive the service. (Ramsden, 2002, cited in Fredericks & Best, 2014, p. 54)

In 2005, the Nursing Council of New Zealand prepared and released a summary of the five principles that underpin cultural safety for nurses and midwives:

Reflect on your own practice; seek to minimise power differentials; engage in discourse with the client; undertake a process of decolonisation; ensure that you do not diminish, demean or disempower others through your action. (Fredricks & Best, 2014, pp. 64–68)

In 2011, they released this definition of cultural safety:

the effective nursing practice of a person or family from another culture and is determined by that person or family. Culture includes, but is not restricted to, age or generation; gender; sexual orientation; occupation and socioeconomic status; ethnic origin or migrant experience; religious or spiritual belief; and disability. The nurse delivering the nursing service will have undertaken a process of reflection on his or her own cultural identity and will recognise the impact that his or her personal culture has on his or her professional practice. Unsafe cultural practice comprises any action, which diminishes, demeans or disempowers the cultural identity and well-being of an individual. (Taylor & Guerin, 2014, p. 11)

Nursing has led the way in Australia and New Zealand in embarking on cultural safety philosophy and practices. The decolonising agenda is a critical strategy that is required among both health professionals and the systems they work within.

#### *Cultural Competence*

Cultural competence is a strategy that was developed in the late 1980s in the United States of America (US) aimed at providing equitable health care to those who have been marginalised—namely, First Nations peoples, Hispanic and African Americans, and other disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. The focus of this strategic approach is on the embedding of cultural change within a health system. It articulates clearly that this requires the training of staff, specific policy development, and assessment of the effective uptake by health professionals. This definition is recognised internationally and, particularly, in population groups whose cultural diversity is different to that of their health professionals, and who are often treated poorly because of this difference.

The National Center for Cultural Competence in Washington DC, United States of America (US), developed the following five elements to support organisations and their systems to direct the uptake of cultural competence.


The elements also need to be taken up in a congruent manner to assist the shifting of cultural naivety towards an openness to cultural diversity.

#### *Yarning*

We use a yarning methodology as this is an Indigenous mode of sharing and delivering knowledges and experiences that reflects and respects our worldviews and ways of knowing, being and doing business, and reciprocity. Indigenous Academic Karen Martin affirms this standpoint: "telling stories is part of Indigenous pedagogy and an established methodology in passing on information; as Indigenous people we have all grown up listening and learning from stories" (Martin, cited in Bessarab, 2010, p. 39).

Our aim, in our yarn, is to pass on our stories in an informal manner, drawing on our work experiences and the wisdom of others who have worked with us over a number of decades. Cultural safety as a strategy for equitable access to health care and health improvement has driven both of our personal aspirations in making a positive impact to the health and wellbeing of our peoples.

#### **The Yarn Begins**

#### *Janine*

When did you first hear that term, cultural safety?

#### *Juanita*

I first heard it at the CATSIN conference. It was in Queensland, and it was Irahapeti Ramsden speaking at our conference, and we sat there and listened to this amazing Maori nurse who talked to us about the importance of cultural safety and the fights that she had and continued to be having in New Zealand. She showed us that the New Zealand press had created a cartoon used to portray her, and it was—it was meant to be a caricature of a 'noble savage'. A very discriminatory portrait of a male with a bone in their hair and in their nose, chained up in a hospital bed.

Ramsden's attempt to bring about cultural safety, received much criticisms. This was and is because racism remains richly embedded in New Zealand and Australia, we knew this was going to be a battle to get this strategy happening, but we were all there as First Nation nurses to support our sister in New Zealand and here.

#### *Janine*

A bit of a back story. I'm from Point Pearce Mission in South Australia. When I went to the big smoke to finally do my nursing degree, I was fairly naïve, to say the least. And nursing had just introduced this concept of cultural safety and I was at Flinders University at the time talking to the Head of School, and she declared herself as a P¯akeh¯a woman. I looked at her and I thought: I wonder where that mob comes from?

Not knowing that that's what New Zealanders called their whitefellas. So, I was sitting there quite wide eyed at this woman. She had her shoes off. She was walking and her palatial suite, with her arms flinging around in the area and talking about cultural safety.

So, to put it mildly, she could've been speaking a foreign language to me at the time. I couldn't understand the constructs that she was talking to me about, let alone racism, to understand racism at that point in my life was literally just a feeling that I encountered.

When someone expressed racial bias towards me, I felt shame, or I felt like I wanted to run and hide. So, I suppose the gem learning from that was later on I really acknowledged that just because you're a black fella you don't need to understand the terminology around racism or that you understand what cultural safety is.

My head of school gave me a whole load of readings and I went away. I read them, and it was just these constant 'aha' moments. What I described it as was learning about white fellas, their power, their privilege and where that placed me and how their attitudes were formed. So, it gave me a really interesting moment that I now get to reflect on and remember, but at the time it was quite funny the way it all came to fruition.

And I think there's a big issue around when we do talk about cultural safety, there's a lot of misunderstanding about what are we talking about.

#### *Juanita*

And when we're talking about cultural safety or we're talking about cultural competence and I'd like to just say that they basically mean the same, competence is about a system, but cultural safety is individualised treatment and patient-centred care. And cultural safety, cultural competence, cultural proficiency, and there's many other terms. I feel, often we get lost in being too simplistic about the terminology, and what we really are thinking about is ensuring that our people are safe in the health care settings.

People have choice and people have control over those choices, so they had a sense of control of what they're having in their health treatment, and they have a sense of being safe in that space. And I guess—respected in that space.

My learnings of cultural safety came post my experiences of a lot of institutionalised racism in the health care settings, and my first research experience which I really tackled naively, but I'm glad I did. Working in Redfern as a child and family health nurse where hearing loss was an issue that really impacted on children's learning abilities and was not being addressed. Many of the inner-city schools had really high rates of otitis media, which is a middle ear disease which many children get, and often, they're treated with antibiotics very quickly, and they recover. But in our communities, that wasn't happening. People had had otitis media for a long time, and it had a big impact on their hearing and ability to learn to listen.

If you don't learn to listen between the zero to three years of age group, you're going to have trouble at school. This issue was raised within the community health centre. I was told, "Oh, that's not a problem. We don't really worry about that." And I went, "Oh, yes we do." That was my first opportunity of working in community, talking to community about, hey, we've got to do something about this. It's not OK. I know this is not OK. I know I've just learned in teaching that a hearing loss is a problem. And we went to Menzies School of Health Research and we brought in a researcher who showed us how to do some research.

A very famous nurse Jennifer Bush, Alison Bush's twin sister worked on this project with me. We ran a community research project where we screened a hundred children within the Redfern area. Eighty-six percent of them had an educationally significant hearing loss. Really appalling. And with that information, at the time, Linda Burney was the President of the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, part of our community grouping, and she took it up with the Minister for Education, and the Minister for Education said, "Right. We're going to do something about this."

And immediately, we had teachers for kids with conductive hearing loss. Before it was just kids who had sensorineural hearing loss, but conductive hearing loss is just as significant, but it had been ignored even by Ear Nose and Throat Specialists (ENTS). A load of ENTS I worked with along this line said, "Why don't we get this?" And I said, "I don't know. I don't understand why you didn't realise if you can't hear, you can't learn", but they didn't.

But they were open to listening. And they did hear—some didn't, of course, but many did hear, and they chose to work with us, which was great, and we did make a difference, and 10 years later, with the ear, nose and throat clinics in all our Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS) across the country. We made a difference, because we didn't—well, we rejected the institutional conceptualisation of, well, that's just the way it's going to be.

That story reminds me of an advertisement that's related to one of our guests in the room, Dr Chelsea Bond, where the Queensland Education Department put a call out for Aboriginal teachers to go and work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It was some sort of selling point by a teacher that basically said she loved working with naughty misfits with a whole heap of Aboriginal kids around here, true deficit ideology. So that's the pervasive messaging that's out there, and so it's easier for our kids to be naughty or to be misfits than it is for them to actually not be—having access to good health care. And I think that's something that we've looked at for a while and people have been—well, I talk about it a lot—about problematising us in relation to creating—you know, we are a problem because we're not hearing. Well, there is that problem.

But flip it, this is what we've been talking about at the university, is we're the problem, that we don't recognise that we have to provide care to children with hearing loss, and to children with visual loss, with speech issues. We need to be providing care to all children, not the twenty percent that have perfect vision, hearing and speech. And I think that's what we've naively considered that we are treating everyone the same and when we treat everyone the same, we actually create minorities. We create the issues.

But sometimes people haven't been treated the same and I suspect that's probably our biggest issue in Aboriginal health, is the lack of access to respectful, culturally safe health care.

#### *Janine*

We do hear that as health professionals we apply a cookie cutter approach. A health professional will say with pride, "I treat everyone the same", but that gives us the notion that there's equality and that doesn't create equity. Equity is about giving people what they need and acknowledging that we don't all start from the same place and therefore we need to see difference and respond to difference respectfully by giving people what they need.

But going back to your comment before about cultural safety versus cultural competence, I love this quote by Dr. Gregory Phillips who basically said it in a nutshell, which is it doesn't really matter what philosophies we're talking about, it's actually that our mob get treated with respect and care and the best-quality care.

So, we certainly talk about cultural safety at my organisation. It does come from Dr Ramsden's Indigenous nursing philosophy, we honour Indigenous knowledges and we honour that she was an Indigenous nurse. I think there was a misnomer with the title of cultural competence, in that there seems to be an epiphany that you can reach and become competent, whereas this work is a lifelong journey.

#### *Juanita*

Absolutely and I think from the national centre's perspective, we've always said that this is a journey and it's a lifelong journey, you never make it, and it's really critical to tell people that, you know, no matter which community you walk into, there's such diversity. You will never know how to ensure that you work safely, and we often—I guess working in the academy, I've found people are very scared to put their hands up to say, "I don't know". It's something that people are fearful of, because this is the space where you're meant to know it all. And, in fact, the healthiest thing for you to ever do is to say is, "I don't know and I'd like to learn and I'd like to listen and I'd like to hear and how can I be more helpful in this space?".

We often don't appreciate that that's what we need to do as soon as we walk into any space, a health setting, an education setting, and particularly working in communities, our communities, and other communities.

#### *Janine*

So, one of the things that happens for us at our organisation, we're an organisation of five staff, and we take care of around 2000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives and we advocate to many stakeholders on the recruitment and retention issues that they face. Probably the larger part of our work is ensuring a culturally safe health system and ensuring that people demonstrate cultural safety, and therefore, we experience better health outcomes for our people.

#### *Juanita*

We seem to be the people that are pushing the agenda, and I agree, we have been doing this for a long time. This has been an agenda that—it's critical. If you want good health care, you want great education, you want anything, you need to actually appreciate that we have to be working with diverse areas.

First, though what's probably the most critical thing, is that Australia needs to know that it is occupying sovereign lands of Aboriginal people, and Torres Strait Islander people, and we have not been given any practices to deal with the problems this has caused. There is a lot of healing to happen.

There's still a lot of recognition of issues, and not that cultural safety is about, you know, "you must understand this", but you must appreciate, I guess, the public health agenda, which is, you know, racism causes health inequities. Colonisation and its policies created dramatic health issues. And they've been sustained through colonial policy. They have not ceased.

We will be talking about grandmothers against removals who are still, you know, talking about—we've got years and generations of people still being removed, and the numbers are increasing every year, and this is something we do have to recognise is part of a legacy of the ongoing colonial strategy of knowing what's best for us First Nations Peoples.

#### *Janine*

For us, we often talk to non-Indigenous lecturers in this space and support their work. We also talk to many organisations who have interest in this space and want to take leadership in the implementation of cultural safety. Often people don't realise that cultural safety, is a concept is good for everyone. When you were talking about diversity and joining with diverse groups, absolutely.

#### *Juanita*

We know that such ghastly health rates are part of not necessarily poor health care, but it's been the lack of access to care. There's been so many people who've not been able to have the care that they thought everyone should deserve. When you talk about access to health care, most people's brains jump to Central Australia, geographically not having access to health care, but we are talking about Western Sydney where most of our mob live.

#### *Janine*

So, access to health care, I'll just give you an interesting conversation that we often have with nurses and midwives, which is to start to talk about cultural safety and we say, "Do you often ask people if they're Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?", to which some nurses, midwives might reply, "Not if they don't look it."

So, we do anatomy and physiology in nursing; there's nothing in there that prescribes what an Aboriginal people looks like? Therefore, people are drawing upon the sensationalism of media about what we as a group look like. Often people will say they don't ask the question because they … "don't want to offend someone." So, we begin to uncover some of the biases—well, the racial bias that people have been fed about what an Aboriginal person looks like and I suppose, that it is shameful to be Aboriginal. And we recently went to a conference and a non-Indigenous student was on a panel with me, and he was saying "I don't know why I ever had to learn cultural safety." Any of you that are in the room that are lecturers would have experienced that first-year students in your Aboriginal cultural safety course impart a fair bit of resistance in learning this topic.

The young person on the panel then went on to state that, "I'm never going to see an Aboriginal person so why I have to learn this stuff?" I took a couple of moments to think about it and I replied to him, "How do you know when you see Aboriginal people? What do they look like?" We unpacked that label and I said to him, "Do you know how important it is for those Aboriginal students sitting in that classroom to actually hear something of themselves, to actually hear about their own people, not that—that we're something in a museum that's a dusty old culture, that we're a vibrant culture and resilient today."

#### *Juanita*

I think that's critical to why we really want to hit it at university and why we think it needs to be broadened across the curriculum beyond—health is vital but we've got to be thinking engineering. We've got to be thinking physics. We've got to be thinking every area.

We want every Indigenous person that walks into all universities, not just Sydney, to feel safe enough to be and exist as an Aboriginal person in that classroom, not to be told that I don't need to learn about Aboriginal issues because, you know, they're irrelevant to me. And I think, you know, learning about Aboriginal issues is very relevant to all Australians, because we are the First Peoples of Australia and if you don't understand and appreciate and respect that, then you don't respect yourselves.

That's probably the most important thing around cultural competence and cultural safety; not that it just improves the way you work with others, it actually opens your space and improves your own life. It actually enables you to consider the world from a point of view that is less about the media's perspectives, it's less about your grandmother's perspective, it's about what you've learnt to learn, and I think that's what we really do target in cultural competence–unpacking your biases, unpacking how you developed your opinions.

Opinions aren't knowledge. How do we build our evidence around what is what we want people to grow and develop knowledge in? There's always that notion between what's cultural awareness versus cultural safety. And I'll say to people: if you don't get uncomfortable, you weren't in cultural safety training and if you weren't learning about, you know, things like white privilege, critical race theory, racism, you weren't in cultural safety training.

#### *Janine*

My organisation (CATSINaM) did a great deal of work together with the NMBA, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHRPA),1 Australian College of Nursing and Australian College of Midwives regarding the systemic embedding of cultural safety. Ultimately, we collectively decided to add cultural safety to the codes of conduct for nursing and midwifery and put this idea out for public consultation. You had the opportunity to do individual submissions, go to workshops. There was not one submission that spoke out against cultural safety in the codes. And I should also mention that it was in there for the first time, cultural safety was to be embedded, but it was also the first inclusion for bullying and harassment. By adding these new elements to the codes, we weren't calling people bullies or saying that, nurses harass people; nor were they saying that nurses and midwives were racist. The codes are about what we want to hold our professions accountable to, and what we don't accept. And, really, it comes down—and I guess working in the health field, it is basic occupational health and safety, and it's about ensuring that we do look after people securely. I guess I've had an amazing health experience.

#### *Juanita*

My appreciating of ensuring our patients felt safe came from my experience of my time at St Vincent's in 1984. This is when we discovered we had AIDS in Australia. And that was a massively scary time for everybody, because they did not know how AIDS was transferred. Many staff at St. Vincent's, walked out of the hospital, as they were too terrified that they were at risk of catching AIDS.

I was working and running a number of wards a shift, because we had lost so many health staff. This really ignited in me how we—well, how the few of us that were left in that setting, that year about how important it was to make sure that we made

<sup>1</sup>The enactment of the Health Practitioner National Law Act 2009 resulted in the replacement of the pre-existing 85 State and Territory Boards with 14 National Boards, of which one is Dental.

our patients feel that they were valued and that was cared for and safe. These were young men who were dying of a dreadful disease. We'd just sort of discovered what it was. We only just realised how we had to treat this, and I guess—and what came out of that space was critically some important issues around infection control, things that were about knowledge changes and behaviour changes. I was thinking, "That's exactly what we're asking for with cultural safety." It's not something hard. We do have to change behaviours in this space because we are going to make a difference and we save lives doing this.

Cultural safety also plays a significant role in academic rollout. At the NCCC, our aim is to ensure our Indigenous students and staff are culturally safe to share their perspectives, their histories, their experiences within an institution that mostly promotes a western doctrine that fails to respect or acknowledge other ways of knowing, being and doing. Our presence in these institutions does require support as we still are dealing with the unbalanced histories of our country in the classrooms we share with our peers and colleagues.

I guess it's about taking the brave steps, and this university has established the national centre and saying that this is a priority and following Universities Australia's 2011 statement on trying to, you know, improve outcomes for Indigenous students that has been a big step. It's about, I guess, how do we build it into the curriculum? How do we get it embedded into spaces where people feel comfortable? And again, I think it's just like—I want to take it back to infection control, you know. We knew that we were killing people because we weren't washing our hands. We learnt that if we didn't wear a mask, we could cause problems, and we had to change behaviours. We had to put needles in yellow bins. We had to do a whole lot of different health care approaches. We had to learn about it. We have had to build our knowledge, and we need to spend some time building knowledge around why cultural safety or cultural competence is important, and getting people to participate in that space.

We have found that the work that we have been doing in our cultural competence leadership programs has been very rewarding for myself and the people who participate in it and I think that people get an opportunity to have an opportunity to talk about it, and you need to give people the space to have time to talk, explore, and do something about it.

#### *Janine*

First and foremost, it's not up to Aboriginal people to be doing this week, I'll reiterate that it takes leadership, commitment, long term. Like I said before, if you walk into your first-year class of nursing and midwifery on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health culture and history, and Gregory Phillips has covered this phenomenon in his Ph.D., if you were to take the feedback forms just from that first term, due to the poor reviews you would never run that course again. So, it takes bravery and leadership to actually do this work in universities and to embed it in institutions.

And I'll also say that with the nursing and midwifery codes, we were really naive, I think, we should have looked and learned for the New Zealand experience where Dr. Ramsden endured much backlash from the government and the professions. I was amazed that my non-Indigenous colleagues were so surprised at the backlash in the media. As Aboriginal people, we know that this happens. We know we're going to get pushed back, especially when we're on the right track and we're pushing the right button.

It's about building it into systems. It's about leadership. It's also about once it's in that system, so it's in your accreditation framework, then you've got the assessors coming in and assessing you and they've never done cultural safety before in their life. How do they actually know that you're delivering quality staff? It's the support of your Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff, non-Indigenous people step into space and they get professional paralysis. I think it's about bringing them together and building their capacity to be able to work with us in this space and be true allies.

It's probably about outcomes as well. How do we measure it? Some of the universities that have done some really great work which Juanita was involved in which was student attributes. Then they get into the hospital system, and this is where cultural safety tells us that it can't be just individuals, it has to be a system approach, because if you are an individual operating in a system that is not culturally safe. That is, the policies aren't geared and thought about for Aboriginal people, you are enacting racist policies because you've shut Aboriginal people out of that. That's why I keep saying it has to be a pipeline systematic approach to how we embed this, then how we assess it and how we measure the outcomes.

Australia does a really great job at reconciliation. Australia, they talk about race relations, so I'll give you a titbit from their barometer. It says that when asked, Indigenous people trust non-Indigenous people more than non-Indigenous people trust us. That's a really good barometer about what is happening in our health systems, so we have to be able to measure that cultural safety is working, because we have to prove it, and have that academic discourse in Australia.

#### *Juanita*

But I guess providing a culturally safe space is not just a physical place, and I think sometimes we've been stuck in thinking it's going to be a building or it requires having people who are around you who have respect for your ways of knowing and being and doing, who aren't going to challenge you just for being who you are—and we have to build that philosophical space so that we can have that safe place.

And I think that's what cultural competence engenders, but we need it to work systemically, and as Janine has said, if I don't practise cultural safety in a system that isn't culturally safe, you're going to be harmed—if I practice. And so, we have to make sure that the system works with us as we promote this cultural safety approach.

So, ideally this whole university and every university should be a safe space and we need to grow that through developing a better way of knowing in the space. I just think that what has been achieved in nursing and midwifery suggests that we have actually had a big leap in thinking, and the backlash from another minority group has been sensational, but there's been really good critique and I think, if anything, that's been a good public service. I think we've moved and made a difference.

Having been able to work in the tertiary education system for a long time, at the last couple of universities I've been able to get cultural attributes assessments a happening thing, that is change. Getting cultural safety criteria into the curriculum, which students are being examined on, is change. This is critical. We have made a difference. We have moved on.

We may not be where we'd all like to be, but as Janine has said, you know, it took two hundred years to get here. And learning around culture, and I guess perhaps going back to what our Vice-Chancellor said, we are learning a lot about the world. We are learning that we need to know more than just what we know. We need to learn around how we value, we need to learn what wellbeing means. We need to learn a whole lot of ways of doing business.

I have to believe that we're on the journey, or else it becomes too disheartening. Australia needs to learn a lot more about its culture and its discourse around critical race theory. We have come some way and it's been good. It begins a nation discussing instead of sweeping it under the carpet. I wish we had a few more of our voices out there, but hopefully, after today, we will.

#### **Conclusion**

To open the NCCC conference, we used a yarning methodology because it is an Indigenous mode of sharing and delivering knowledge and experiences that reflect and respect our worldviews and ways of knowing, being and doing business, and reciprocity. We shared our stories and experiences of working to promote health equity, to address racism in health systems, and to embed cultural safety across a range of settings. We also discussed the difference between the philosophy and praxis of cultural safety and cultural competence. We stressed the importance of health practitioners acknowledging their need to learn as a lifelong process, and of asking questions such as, "I don't know and I'd like to learn and I'd like to listen and I'd like to hear, and how can I be more helpful in this space?" From our yarn, a number of conclusions can be made:


of health services; they experience choices; they have a sense of control over their health treatment; and their human rights are acknowledged and respected.


#### **References**


**Juanita Sherwood** is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales. She has over 25 years of experience in Indigenous health and education, community-based research methodologies, and decolonisation strategies that improve health and healing outcomes for Indigenous people. She is currently the Associate Dean (Indigenous) for the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney.

**Janine Mohamed** is a Nurrungga Kaurna woman from Point Pearce in South Australia. She has over 25 years' experience in nursing, management, health workforce, health policy, and project management in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector. Janine is currently the CEO of the Lowitja Institute.

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## **Chapter 10 Healing Mainstream Health: Building Understanding and Respect for Indigenous Knowledges**

**Liz Rix and Darlene Rotumah**

#### **Introduction: Our Story**

We first encountered one another around a decade ago when sharing an office at a rural health campus of The University of Sydney, where both of us were working on health research projects. From that first meeting we were intuitively drawn to each other, and soon discovered shared interests, and some surprisingly common perspectives and opinions on health services, seen with an Indigenous Australian lens. We were both employed in mainstream health at that time and had been longterm employees within the same local health district. Darlene, a proud Bundjalung woman from Booningbah (Fingal Heads), worked with her own people in her country as a counsellor in an Aboriginal health service within New South Wales Health. Liz, a non-Indigenous "outsider," worked as a specialist nurse in a busy specialist unit at a regional base hospital. Both of us have witnessed the multilayered institutional and individual racism that is the "normalised" experience of the majority of Indigenous Australians when trying to access mainstream health services. We both know from our own clinical and professional lives that racism is firmly embedded in health organisations and continues to dominate the treatment experience of Indigenous Australians.

It was our common perspective on these issues that were the origins of a strong relationship based on mutual respect. We share a passion for improving the journey and outcomes for Indigenous people forced to navigate a health system that is still perpetrating institutional racism and discriminatory practices. These issues are further exacerbated by the historical ignorance and lack of understanding of the majority of health professionals working within the mainstream system. We have since developed and nurtured our relationship based on a deeper shared understanding of the clinical and academic worlds where we have both worked. Our relationship is

L. Rix (B) · D. Rotumah

Gnibi College of Indigenous Australians, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia e-mail: liz.rix@scu.edu.au

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_10

built on relational accountability and shared respect for Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. We agree on the urgent need for this kind of relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to be replicated in clinical encounters within mainstream health care environments.

We have learned much from one another as we spend time together in the space between our two worlds, as women, researchers and teachers. Darlene enabled Liz to obtain funding for her doctoral studies by providing a testimonial, outlining Liz's strengths in consulting with her community and building positive clinical and research relationships with her people as a nurse and academic. Liz has since reciprocated by providing informal guidance and support to Darlene as she works on her own doctoral studies. This is Liz's way of paying respect and thanks for Darlene's endorsement of her ability to work with her people as a health researcher.

A decade since we began to build our relationship, we found ourselves presenting the content of this chapter at a conference, Yarning Circle. The participants in this Yarning Circle were a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, researchers and clinicians, gathered to explore the conference theme of cultural competence and the higher education sector. We both consider our bond and parallel worldviews as a practical model of how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from all backgrounds can build strong, respectful relationships based on two-way learning and understanding.

#### **Some Background**

This chapter's opening story describes the co-authors' congruent lenses through which they viewed their experiences of working within mainstream health, where both have seen the daily challenges for Indigenous Australians when accessing hospital or mainstream health services, which are often alien and unwelcoming places to be (Durey, Wynaden, Davidson, & Katzenellenbogen, 2012; Sherwood, 2013). Both authors have witnessed Indigenous Australians' experiences of distress and fear, often avoiding mainstream services, and routinely feeling disempowered and voiceless—a result of the ongoing impacts of colonisation (Paradies, 2016). Indigenous Australians' lives continue to be affected by historical and contemporary racism, deeply embedded social injustices and successive flawed government policies (Paradies & Cunningham, 2009; Paradies, Harris, & Anderson, 2008). Discriminatory attitudes of many white Australian health care professionals play a significant part in this fear and avoidance (Eades, 2000; Eckerman et al., 2010). This equates to systematic continuation of the dominant, racially tainted western lens on Indigenous Australians. This is occurring within a nation that is told by predominantly white, male politicians that Australia is a multicultural nation, and free of racism. This, however, cannot be further from the truth. In this nation, where deficitbased, racially-driven stereotyping remains systemic, blatant untruths are frequently flaunted in the federal parliament and mainstream media when any discussion of Indigenous Australians occurs (McCausland, 2004). While there is no universal Indigenous culture or language in Australia, there is a universal shared experience of Indigenous people encountering power differentials within health systems (Eckerman et al., 2010).

The deliberate state-led destruction of Indigenous communities, languages and culture has resulted in deep and transgenerational levels of trauma (Sheehan, Martin, Krysinska, & Kilroy, 2009). This history underpins the "epidemic" proportions of chronic disease suffered by Indigenous people throughout first-world nations colonised by Europeans. Indigenous Australians experience some of the worst health disparities among colonised first-world nations, illuminating enormous gaps in social justice, equity and the social determinants of health (Anderson, Crengle, Kamaka, Palafox, & Jackson-Pulver, 2006; Anderson & Whyte, 2008; King, Smith, & Gracey, 2009). Despite this traumatic history, Indigenous Australians continue to fight for empowerment and self-determination, demonstrating high levels of cultural strengths, survival and resilience. Until mainstream health services remove their deficit-focused, problematic spotlight on all things Indigenous in this nation, there can be little progress. Indigenous academics have been calling for years for the "writing back against the deficit position, in itself a health-promoting exercise" (Arabena, Rowley, & MacLean, 2014, p. 317).

Despite the election of several Indigenous people to the federal parliament, there remains no prioritisation of Indigenous voices in this nation's parliament. This is a strong contributor to Australia remaining a racially dysfunctional and disturbed nation (Johnson, 2018; Sanders, 2018). Ignorance and denial of the history of the colonisation of this land remain the "norm" for many white Australians (Higgins & Wellington, 2018), and this history is a continuum of white privilege that still plays out in the form of institutional racism (Durey, Thompson, & Wood, 2012; Henry, Houston, & Mooney, 2004). In 2017 the *Uluru Statement from the Heart* (Referendum Council, 2017) called for an Indigenous voice in the Australian Constitution but was swiftly dismissed by the Federal Government. It has, however, been strongly endorsed by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) in an anti-racism statement:

Racism can occur in both direct and indirect forms, including casual or everyday racism and implicit or unintentional racism, and can be experienced by a patient from their healthcare provider, by a healthcare provider from their patient, or between healthcare providers. (Johnson, 2018, p. 7)

The above quote, and the AMA's support for the *Uluru Statement from the Heart*, while encouraging and positive, is indicative of the current tensions around mainstream health service delivery to Indigenous Australians. We present our relationship and relational accountability as a metaphor for what needs to change within mainstream services, and in the policy and services delivery context (Wilson, 2008). This is not a research or policy-based piece of writing; instead, we aim to encourage mainstream services and individual health care professionals to think and act beyond the level of "address policy and tick the box" outcomes, when engaging with Indigenous Australians within mainstream health organisations. We discuss the challenges of teaching non-Indigenous undergraduate health students the essential nature of developing critical self-reflection and gaining insight into the unconscious bias their own white privilege provides. We discuss solutions to the ongoing systemically embedded racism within health care organisations, via a model of health care services for Indigenous Australians that includes Indigenous Australians themselves as the "experts" in their own peoples' health and wellbeing.

#### **Two-Way Understanding Through Yarning Circles at the Cultural Interface**

Yarning Circles are an Australian Indigenous way of communicating within a group, and also an Indigenist method of communication and discussion (Dean, 2010; Mills, Sunderland, & Davis-Warra, 2013; Walker, Fredericks, Mills, & Anderson, 2013). Yarning Circles "provide the equal sharing place where deep equity can be achieved" (Sheehan, 2011, p. 70). Yarning Circles provide a space where each person can speak in turn without interruption, with participants within the Circle requiring "deep listening" skills. Yarning Circles create a respectful and effective way to prioritise Indigenous voices within any communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous group members (Fredericks et al., 2011).

This work has emerged from a Yarning Circle entitled Healing Mainstream Health, conducted by the co-authors at a 2018 conference held by the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC), University of Sydney. The challenges of building respectful "two way" therapeutic relationships between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous health care professionals were explored. Our Yarning Circle recommended the inclusion of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in mainstream health institutions, as the way forward in reducing health inequities and the reluctance many Indigenous Australians have about engaging with biomedical care and treatment.

This Yarning Circle enabled the co-author's voices to be heard at the cultural interface, where a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants engaged within the Circle. The term cultural interface was coined by an Indigenous Australian scholar and refers to "the intersection of the Western and Indigenous domains" where Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledges intersect (Nakata, 2002, p. 284) The combination of a Bundjalung and white woman conducting the Yarn was a working example of blending western and Indigenous perspectives, and knowledge in practice. This approach aimed to apply a culturally safe lens to prioritising Indigenous voices and is a key Indigenist communication tool in the research and health services context (Bessarab & Ng"andu, 2010; Jennings, Bond, & Hill, 2018).

According to Indigenist philosophy, and the principles of relational accountability, the co-creation of new knowledge is a relational exercise that cannot occur with an individual in isolation. Just as in Indigenous cultures, the land is not owned by one person, an individual cannot own new knowledge and must acknowledge those they have worked or collaborated within the discovery of that new knowledge (Rix, Barclay, & Wilson, 2014a, 2014b; Wilson, 2008). Our opening story describes the power of working together to create two-way understanding across our two cultures. Here, we apply our metaphor to the creation of new knowledge, and also to our shared experience and understanding of the challenges Indigenous people face on a daily basis when trying to access mainstream health services.

Indigenous people, when accessing mainstream health services and when under the care of white health care staff, (particularly when hospitalised) frequently experience high levels of disempowerment, judgement and discrimination (Aspin, Brown, Jowsey, Yen, & Leeder, 2012; Durey, Thompson, & Wood, 2011). Indigenous scholars have always known that an awareness and understanding of Indigenous history, culture and protocols is essential, when preparing health students to develop a culturally based and respectful way of working with Indigenous people under their care (College of Nurses Aoterea, 2010; Downing, Kowal, & Paradies, 2011; Thackrah & Thompson, 2013; Westerman, 2004).

In order to provide an environment where health care and treatment incorporates cultural understanding and respect, undergraduate health students must be provided with extensive education about the realities that have created the current health disparities suffered by Indigenous people in Australia.

I don't think we could overestimate how much colonisation, invasion, disrespect, illegal acts, it's immeasurable how much damage that's done and if you damage my grandmother, if you damage my mother you damage me, you know. It is like that damage, that hurt, you carry through. (Wilson, Kelly, Magarey, Jones & Mackean, 2016, p. 8)

Understanding by the mainstream health workforce of the historical, political and social disadvantage underlying contemporary causes of Indigenous Australian peoples' health disparities is central to shifting the institutional barriers that stand in the way of achieving health and social equity (Anderson & Whyte, 2008; Awofeso, 2011; Coffin, 2007; Sherwood, 2009). This learning must come from a position of strength and resilience, where students are forced to scrutinize and confront the biomedical focus and negatively tainted lens that problematises not just health issues, but all conversation relating to Indigenous Australians (Jackson, Power, Sherwood, & Geia, 2013).

I think they need to get back to school … learn about Aboriginal issues and have cultural values about 'em, Aboriginal cultural values. Because half the time their attitude towards Aboriginal issues and values keeps Aboriginals away. Sometimes Aboriginals don't want to go and listen to 'em, they stay away and at the end of the day the Aboriginal suffers. [Camilleroi Elder, 2011] (Rix, Barclay, Stirling, Tong, & Wilson, 2015)

Indigenous nurse and scholar Juanita Sherwood contends that the poor health status of Indigenous Australians is maintained through "victim" blaming and "othering" in a nation where "whiteness" is the norm. This normalising of a problematic approach "serves to reinforce the practice of *othering* or …. *problematising* the marginalized uncooperative element of society" (Sherwood, 2009, p. S25).

The actual teaching used to deliver this learning needs to incorporate not just historical and contemporary facts, but also Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and learning. These may be storytelling and yarning styles of interaction within the teaching, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers. Both co-authors have practical teaching experience, in a number of educational settings, of how students value the learning they gain from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators working together in the classroom. An appropriate mix of stories told by Indigenous Elders, scholars and health care professionals, along with anecdotal stories from non-Indigenous clinicians who have worked closely with Indigenous people at the mainstream health "coalface," can provide a practical, yet culturally informed and driven education experience (Virdun et al., 2013). Just as the opening story in this chapter presents our relationship based on respect for one another's worldviews, and culture as metaphor for working together with two-way understanding within mainstream health, this can be extended to the classroom in the context of teaching Indigenous health and culturally shaped care and treatment.

#### **Critical Self-Reflection … It can't Be Faked**

How can we expect health students to attempt to use an alternative lens on the world when many have no concept or awareness of their own cultural lens or privilege as a white Australian?

Encouraging students to reflect on their own white or western privilege is crucial in the journey towards creating culturally safe and accessible health services (Durey, Thompson, & Wood, 2010). The impact of urging students to face (often for the first time) their previously unconscious assumptions of privilege, as members of the dominant population in this country, is a fraught task for educators. Further, students are then required to reflect even more deeply, to unpack how these unconscious assumptions impact and influence their own professional lens and practice, and how their practice then impacts on their clients. Urging students to go beyond the level of describing deficit-focused literature, in order to address what is often framed as the "Aboriginal problem," within assessment tasks, and stimulating a genuine desire to build strong therapeutic relationships based on two-way understanding and respect, is indeed a challenge in contemporary Australia. Teaching this material is not for the faint-hearted and can be a very stressful experience.

Anecdotal teaching and clinical experiences have taught the co-authors that a number of undergraduate health students approach the prospect of studying Indigenous health with the expectation that it will require a minimal academic lens, and even with a patronising "tick the box"-to-get-the-degree approach. There can be a misconception that it will be an easy unit in which to achieve a good grade. The obvious question here is "why is this so?" Why do students make this false assumption? We propose the concept that a powerful tool to assist in changing this may well be increasing the Indigenous and non-Indigenous teaching team approach, and further developing teaching strategies that can highlight and showcase these positive intercultural relationships. Students may then witness the power of collegial and collaborative teamwork in a classroom setting. Experiencing this may also assist students in the critical reflection required to examine their own relationships with students, co-workers, clients and so on.

The realisation that Indigenous Education is actually everyone's business has recently become clear: everyone is now required to take up this responsibility … Therefore, respectful collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics remains crucial. (Virdun et al., 2013, p. 4)

#### **Students' Reality Check …**

When students first begin to engage with some historical and contemporary truths about the state of Indigenous people's health, they soon discover that it is a challenging and confronting topic.

Basically, we are not very good about knowing our own history. Aboriginal people know theirs extremely well. You know, [people ask] "why did we have to say sorry, why do they keep going on about it?" And whilst we acknowledge we need to move forward, we can't forget the past. (Wilson et al., 2016, p. 8)

To succeed in understanding and engaging with this topic, students are required to develop their critical thinking skills and apply critical self-reflection to their own culture. The majority of undergraduate students face very real difficulties in moving from simply absorbing and repeating facts at the school level, to critically examining and synthesising literature and learning at university. In view of this, how much more of a challenge is it to ask students new to academia, to critically examine their own culture and worldviews, and how these influence their professional practice when working with Indigenous clients? This challenge is further complicated when students arrive at the classroom with pre-existing racist or discriminatory attitudes.

Then there is the need to respect differences and acknowledge that there is another worldview that must be part of any successful therapeutic relationship, and this subject matter can result in a reactive and negative response from some students. Students then tend to react in a number of ways to being taught that they are members of the colonising, dominant cultural group. Their white privilege can kick in, via angry and negative reactions, when being taught some of the truths about the colonisation of this country. This reactive approach to their learning emerges in a number of ways, with students sometimes targeting the lecturer or the material used. The majority, however, refrain from voicing their anger or disbelief when exposed to the ugly truth of the violent history of this country, preferring instead to complain anonymously in formal teaching evaluations at the end of the session. It would appear that students looking through a lens of racism prefer to be covert, with their only focus being a "good grade" and ticking the box as a culturally safe health care professional. These students, however, become complicit in the continuation of institutional racism towards Indigenous Australia, therefore contributing to the gap in health and wellbeing between Indigenous and other Australians (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019).

#### **Complexity of Terms and Culturally Respectful Care**

Health systems and organisations need to progress beyond the current tokenistic approach to cross-cultural encounters still evident in many services. The use of medical jargon, and complex profession-based terms and language, firmly embeds and reinforces power imbalances between Indigenous people and health care professionals (Cass et al., 2002).

When the doctors and staff explain things to the Aboriginal patient, I found what they do, they talk in university words, big jaw breakers, instead of just talking plain English so they can understand it [Bundjalung Elder, 2011] (Rix, Barclay, Stirling, Tong, & Wilson, 2014a, 2014b)

The current confusing range of culturally focused terms and theories—for example, cultural security, cultural sensitivity, cultural humility, cultural awareness—can add an unnecessary level of complexity to the challenges of undergraduate health students developing an empathetic cultural lens. It may be argued that this may be yet another example of the systemic and policy complexity which is inadvertently contributing to further compound and reinforce ongoing unequal power relationships within health care encounters.

In the words of remote practice nurse Sarah Ong:

Endless spoken words or conversations consisting of medical jargon are not necessary to develop or maintain a therapeutic relationship, however, both parties spending time listening, accepting and supporting each other is essential. (Ong, 2012, p. 33)

This remote nurse's words demonstrate her dedication to the principles of cultural safety, and her ability to work across the two worldviews. Just as we authors are learning from one another in the professional space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous culture, Sarah is applying the principles of developing therapeutic relationships in her clinical practice, by way of listening to, supporting and respecting the diversity of her Indigenous client's worldviews.

#### **Negative Focus of Mainstream Media: What the Hell is Cultural Safety Anyway?**

Cultural safety for Indigenous Australians has only recently been added to the Nurses and Midwives Code of Conduct (NMBA, 2018). This news, however, triggered a series of vehement racial attacks from right political factions within the health care industry and mainstream media. In these attacks, broadcast nationally by a mix of commercial television and radio networks, a number of blatant untruths were stated as fact. These included a false claim that white nurses must "declare" their white privilege to Indigenous people before being allowed to care for them (ABC, 2018).

Please tell me I'm wrong. As I understand it, this new code of conduct for nurses in Queensland requires obviously white nurses to announce they've got white privilege before they can look after patients of an Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander background. Am I right there? (Credlin, 2018)

Several radio journalists took this further during a blatantly racist rant about the addition of cultural safety to the Nurses Code of Conduct which showcased some ignorance and bias. Andrew Bolt parodied an end of life hospital scene, stating:

What about if they're just within seconds of dying and the nurse has to fling themselves into action, but they have to stop, before, while they just announce their white privilege, oh too late. (ABC, 2018)

When discussing the Nurses Code, radio presenter Michael McLaren showcased his lack of research skills, and ignorance, by stating: "This all sounds ridiculous to me. What the hell is cultural safety anyway? No one's ever heard of it" (ABC, 2018). This style of media sadly confirms the lack of progress in addressing the institutional racism and discrimination that remain endemic within health care in this nation. Further, it reinforces the coloniser's negative and racially tainted lens on Indigenous Australians and their culture (McCausland, 2004).

This is an example of mainstream media driving and reinforcing the negative stereotyping of the "Aboriginal problem" in this nation. This kind of reporting ensures these attitudes remain the commonly accepted view of white Australia. The Nursing Code of Conduct simply states:

Cultural safety is recognising the ways you can provide care that meets Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples' needs and reflect on the ways that your own culture and assumptions might impact on the care you give. (NMBA, 2018)

These racially-focused factions of the media, however, used this long-overdue addition to the Nursing Code of Conduct to confirm the "Aboriginal problem" in the minds of many Australians. Students and practising health care professionals must be made aware of, and reflect on, this style of journalism if they are to develop a deeper understanding of race relations in this country. This media-fuelled racism remains a significant barrier to the provision of culturally competent and respectful care and treatment for Indigenous Australians.

#### **Evaluation of Cultural Competence/Safety: Impossible from a Health Services Lens?**

The cultural differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians have been described as a cultural "chasm" that severely handicaps accessible and acceptable health services (Thomson, 2005). Research has shown cultural competence training outcomes remain poor, with experiences of institutional and individual racism still the norm for Indigenous Australians engaging with mainstream services (Franks, 2011; Westwood & Westwood, 2010). This highlights the urgent need for health care organisations to critically examine their policies and practices, for embedded racism and discriminatory treatment of Indigenous Australians (Downing et al., 2011; Thackrah & Thompson, 2013). A systematic review of interventions aimed at improving cultural competence in health care found that studies commonly lacked a standardised and validated research instrument that can measure cultural competence (Truong, Paradies, & Priest, 2014). It is of concern that there is no available evaluation of the cultural competence of individuals or health care organisations from the perspective of the consumers, Indigenous Australians; and the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars over the past decade has clearly shown the lack of effective evaluation methods and tools to achieve this (Franks, 2011; Westwood & Westwood, 2010). In any other context, evaluation of service delivery from the perspective of the consumer—which is assumed in the context of patient-centred care models (Kitson, Marshall, Bassett, & Zeitz, 2013)—would seem to be a "no brainer." There remains, however, no impetus for Indigenous consumers, their Elders and community leaders to determine effective evaluation of their peoples' treatment within health organisations. This is yet a further example of mainstream health's lack of motivation to increase Indigenous self-determination and empowerment.

A 2011 study by an Indigenous Australian nurse sought to evaluate the effectiveness of cultural awareness training for all staff working in her health service (Franks, 2011). This quantitative study used a questionnaire to elicit the attitudes and beliefs of health staff who had accessed a one-day cultural awareness training program provided by New South Wales Health. While the findings showed some improvements in the cultural awareness levels of staff, the findings showed little or no motivation of individuals or health organisations to move beyond mere awareness of cultural differences, to improving the cultural competence of staff and organisational policies and practices (Franks, 2011). A major strength of this work was that the measurement instrument was based on the lived experience of Indigenous clients accessing the health service. In addition, the Indigenous nurse-author used what she terms the Aboriginal "Culture House" (see Fig. 10.1) as a metaphor for a "framework or lens through which we can consider the need for, the history of, and current approaches to addressing cultural differences in provision of health care services" (Franks, 2011, p. 10). The author uses this Culture House metaphor to illustrate the complexity and interdependence of interrelated aspects of, and terms used for, addressing cultural differences. She explains that if any part of the structure is overlooked or omitted, the house becomes unstable and untenable.

In order to build a complete picture of the most important aspects combined into an overall framework, those aspects have been set into the metaphor of a Culture House where (a) is a path leading to a more complex set of interdependent elements, which represents cultural awareness; (b) is the foundation, which represents building further on cultural awareness and developing into cultural sensitivity; (c) and (d) are the walls of cultural safety and cultural security, building on the simpler yet essential foundations; (e) is the ceiling, which represents Cultural Respect; and (f) is the roof, which represents cultural competence: the house is now complete and "liveable" (Franks, 2011 p. 8).

Until there is a validated tool that enables evaluation of cultural competence of individuals and organisations, from the perspective of Indigenous people (the consumers), it remains doubtful that mainstream health can provide sustained and

**Fig. 10.1** The Aboriginal "culture house"—a metaphor for the complexity and interdependence of related aspects of addressing cultural differences (Franks, 2011 p. 9)

auditable, culturally competent and safe care to Indigenous Australians (Bronwyn Fredericks, 2010; Fredericks, 2003).

#### **Indigenous Health Care Professionals: A Culturally Safe and Competent Workforce**

The Australian Government and universities must ensure that more Indigenous doctors and nurses graduate and encourage them (but not oblige them) to work in delivering culturally appropriate services to their communities. Breaking down the barriers to access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will increase the numbers attending mainstream primary health care services and result in significant improvements in Indigenous morbidity and mortality. (Hayman, White, & Spurling, 2009)

Mainstream health must prioritise a sustained increase in the Indigenous workforce in order to demonstrate their commitment to closing the health and wellbeing gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Duff, 2018; National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers Association, 2018). This requires health systems to prioritise the delivery of culturally safe and competent care within mainstream policy and practice, and the prioritisation of Indigenous Knowledges (IKs). This is clearly documented in the overabundance of government documents and policies (Australian Government Department of Health, 2017; Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, 2017). However, this positive rhetoric is still being overlooked or ignored at the "coalface" of service delivery (Eckerman et al., 2010; Taylor & Guerin, 2014). The question here is: how can government policies and research reflect genuine and respectful engagement by the dominant western and biomedical power brokers? This will not occur until governments and mainstream health organisations prioritise genuine translation of research and policy into practice, thereby moving beyond positive rhetoric and merely being seen to address key performance indicators.

Indigenous health care professionals need to be respected and promoted as the key to achieving the highest level of cultural safety and competence in the Australian health care system. They are the pinnacle of culturally shaped and competent health services delivery for Indigenous Australians (Sherwood et al., 2015; Stuart & Nielsen, 2011).

You know how it is in Aboriginal communities; nobody goes by their real name. They go by their nickname. To have that knowledge, that's like a language within itself, if you know the lingo or the mob then you are half way there. (Stuart & Nielsen, 2011, p. 98)

This is well known by Aboriginal community controlled health care organisations where Indigenous workforces are the drivers of clinical services (National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, 2016). The strategy of Indigenous health care professionals and organisations of positioning Indigenous health care professionals at the forefront of services is key to improving Indigenous Australian peoples' health and wellbeing; and this was well documented in 1989 (National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party, 1989). This is a typical example of the lack of prioritisation of these issues by successive governments despite evidence showing how those issues can be addressed.

#### **The Shadow of Racism … Always There**

Indigenous health care and medical professionals have profound insight into the challenges facing Indigenous people when accessing health care. Their experiences of interaction with their fellow non-Indigenous colleagues mirror the experience of Indigenous patients within health care systems. Indigenous clinicians live with racial vilification and blatant racism within their chosen disciplines and workplaces. The current president of the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association documented this in his discipline's magazine, where he discussed the lack of awareness in the medical profession of what it is to be Aboriginal Australian suffering endemic institutionalised racism in culturally unsafe environments (Rallah-Baker, 2018a).

My own dealings with blatant racism, degradation, training delays, bullying, harassment and racial vilification are unfortunately considered an unremarkable experience amongst my Indigenous medical brethren. To many of us, racially motivated workplace violence is the norm. Institutionalised racism, unconscious bias and cultural insensitivity might sound like buzzwords people kick around, but they are real, and their impact is real. (Rallah-Baker, 2018a)

One of the co-authors recently taught an academically outstanding Indigenous midwifery student during her undergraduate degree, witnessing this student's passion for working with Indigenous women throughout their birthing journey. This student, however, experienced a confronting form of "culture shock" while on a clinical placement near the end of her degree. She found herself traumatised by witnessing the distress and pain of her own people when forced to birth in a regionally-based hospital, where the white staff were openly disrespectful and demonstrating minimal cultural competence, or cultural safety, in the hospital birthing environment. Other Indigenous health care professionals experience similar trauma as they attempt to study and work within mainstream health and education facilities (Gorman, 2017). Not only are they made acutely aware that culturally unsafe places, hospitals and mainstream health services remain, but Indigenous health care students and professionals themselves experience racism and discriminatory treatment by their peers and colleagues on a daily basis (Rallah-Baker, 2018b). A recent study of the experiences of Indigenous health workers enrolled in a Bachelor of Nursing degree commonly found both overt and covert racism directed towards them by their white student peers. "There's still a lot in the white nursing students that make negative comments about Indigenous people and you hear it in class, it makes you feel like walking out" (Stuart & Gorman, 2015, p. 35).

Indigenous nursing students regularly experience negativity and racist judgements by their fellow white nursing students:

They said, "No good putting them in a house, they will knock it down and actually start fires with the wood." I said, "Look you know I'm Aboriginal, I actually own my own home." It just makes you wonder when they actually do become registered nurses how they're going to treat Aboriginal people on the wards. (Stuart & Gorman, 2015, p. 35)

While these attitudes remain the norm, it is obvious there is still much work to be done to assist non-Indigenous clinicians to overcome their own unconscious bias when working with Indigenous Australians (Rallah-Baker, 2018b). This is critical to enabling respectful therapeutic relationships with their Indigenous colleagues and patients. Conversations about racism remain a very contested space within the health care context. In the words of Indigenous doctor Kristopher Rallah-Baker, "We live in a country where it is almost taboo to talk about racism" (Rallah-Baker, 2018b).

#### **We Need to Find Solutions Together at the Cultural Interface**

Government health policies cite culturally competent health professionals as vital to "Closing the Gap." While using positive terms of reference and rhetoric, these policies—based on the dominant western biomedical perspective—continue to struggle to deliver tangible improvements to health outcomes for Indigenous Australians (Australian Health Ministers" Advisory Council, 2017). One question that is often asked by Indigenous people is, "how can the dominant group that, just by its very existence, is the cause of the current cultural chasm between Indigenous Australians across all social determinants of health, be charged with finding the solutions?" (Sherwood, 2010).

We, the co-authors, argue that part of the solution lies at the clinical coalface of mainstream health services in the building of strong and respectful relationships, as per our story metaphor. Mainstream health organisations and clinicians acknowledging and respecting Elders, community members and all Aboriginal health staff, as the experts in their people's health and wellbeing, is part of that solution. Non-Indigenous health care professionals and researchers critically reflecting on their own culture, as the dominant culture, can support the two worldviews to work together, free of the power imbalances and racism that remains embedded systemically in the dominant biomedical space.

Combining biomedical and Indigenous perspectives has the potential to provide care and treatment for Indigenous Australians that is medically and culturally rigorous and safe, in a very real and practical way, rather than just being a "tick the box" exercise that is, in effect, a show of politically correct "othering" of Indigenous people seeking health care (Sherwood, 2009). This may play out as simply a nurse asking a hospitalised Indigenous patient about their health care preferences; the nurse may then consult with family or Elders about ways to better support that client while in hospital. The nurse has demonstrated culturally safe care by seeking the advice of those with intimate knowledge about the client and their family, cultural norms and preferences (Rix, Moran, Kapeen, & Wilson, 2016). Simply seeking a patient's cultural preferences regarding, for example, the gender of their caregivers, and those who are sharing their room while hospitalised, can begin a positive therapeutic relationship and reduce feelings of vulnerability (Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Australia, 2012).

#### **Indigenous Ways of "Knowing, Being and Doing" Healing**

When we put [western medicine and traditional Yolngu healing] together, we strong—both feet strong. We can see with a clear mind. Stand strong together. (Oliver, 2013, p. 6)

Despite overwhelming evidence that countering the profound impacts of colonisation requires reconnecting people to culture, country and traditional healing methods, successive governments remain resistant to acknowledging the potential healing power of inclusion of IKs. Indigenous scholars, Elders and communities have been urging policy-makers and governments to access IKs and expertise for generations. Inclusion of traditional Indigenous medicine and culture in all aspects of health promotion and service delivery for Indigenous people and increasing collaboration between the biomedical model and Indigenous ways of knowing, can reduce power imbalances and contribute significantly to decolonising health services delivery (Aspin et al., 2012; Sherwood, 2013).

For the high numbers of Indigenous Australians impacted by colonisation, healing occurs by way of reconnection to "Country," family and culture (Kirmayer, Dandeneau,Marshall, Phillips, &Williamson, 2011;Maher, 1999; Poche Indigenous Health Network, 2016). A form of cultural healing occurs when colonised Indigenous people can reconnect to Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. This may be through dance, art, learning traditional ways, or sitting down with Elders and listening to traditional stories (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation, 2013). As Kombumerri Elder Auntie Mary Graham states:

Although Indigenous people everywhere are westernised to different degrees, Aboriginal people's identity is essentially always embedded in land and defined by their relationships to it and to other people. (Graham, 2008, p. 187)

Indigenous culture has never been static; however, communities have always placed the wellbeing of their people and country at the centre of their worldview (Morgan, Slade & Morgan, 1997; Hunt, 2013), enabling evolution and adapting to change with resilience.

We need to gain an understanding of the issues surrounding Indigenous health, culture and survival. This knowledge is important for the future of health provisions in this country. (Merritt, 2007, p. 12)

Mainstream health can acknowledge that the inclusion of IKs and expanding the biomedical understanding of Indigenous health and wellbeing, is the missing component in closing the current health gap (Hunt, 2013; Durie, 2004; Poche Indigenous Health Network, 2016). Combining biomedical and Indigenous ways of knowing and healing can not only assist in closing the current health gap, but a fusion of health and healing strategies from both worlds can contribute to breaking down power imbalances within mainstream health and provide Indigenous Australians selfdetermination and culturally safer health services (Durie, 2004). If mainstream health organisations take this path, there are many potential flow-on effects towards Indigenous Australians' social determinants of health, including employment, education, social capital and, most importantly, racism.

Mainstream initiatives that engage with Aboriginal cultural practice, philosophy, spirituality and traditional Aboriginal medicines are examples of how to enact the theoretical concept of Indigenous Knowledges into reality and practice. However, there are too few examples of where this is happening in a meaningful and enduring way. (Poche Indigenous Health Network, 2016)

#### **Conclusion**

The co-authors have offered their relationship and the principles of relational accountability as a metaphor for how mainstream services can create more culturally comfortable and safer treatment and care environments for Indigenous people seeking their services. Mainstream health organisations must acknowledge and address the systemically embedded institutional racism that drives the experience of Indigenous Australians when accessing health care services. Until this occurs, there can be little closing of the current health and wellbeing gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We have unpacked some of the challenges of teaching undergraduate health students to reflect on the dominance of their western culture. This is crucial if students are to build positive therapeutic relationships with Indigenous people based on two-way understanding. Respect for and inclusion of IKs and traditional healing is crucial if mainstream health itself is to heal from over two centuries of the racial and cultural exclusion of Indigenous Australians from equitable access to health care services.

#### **References**


**Liz Rix** is a lecturer/academic with Gnibi College of Australian Indigenous peoples at Southern Cross University. She is also a Registered Nurse. She teaches Indigenous Health to undergraduate and postgraduate health and social work professionals. Her research interests are Indigenous Health; reflexive practice and improving the cultural competence of non-Indigenous clinicians.

**Darlene Rotumah** is a Bundjalung woman from Booningbah (Fingal Head, New South Wales). She is also an Indigenous Research academic with Gnibi College of Australian Indigenous peoples at Southern Cross University. She has worked in the field of Indigenous Health for over a decade as an Aboriginal Health Worker. Darlene's research interests include Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing, and Aboriginal health workforce.

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## **Chapter 11 History in the Now: Asserting Indigenous Difference in "Top End" Higher Education Using Culturally Responsive Pedagogy**

**Michele Willsher and Janine Oldfield**

#### **Introduction**

Recent changes to curriculum and course design by schools and universities signal their agreement that the teaching of intercultural communication skills and cultural competencies is vital for a sustainable world future. The importance of being culturally competent has reached an international status, with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) including cultural competence in their Programme for International Student Assessment Global Competence Framework. However, a local and substantially earlier sign of its importance was made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (established in 1987) when the Commission recommended a cultural competence approach to the training of professionals across Australia (UA, 2011, p. 6). It is generally understood that cultural competence requires not only awareness of one's own culture but an understanding of "others", as well as an understanding of how cultures interact (UA, 2011).

When teaching Indigenous students in the higher education system, one is cognizant that, at this point in time, Indigenous students remain marginalised by the lack of awareness of many non-Indigenous Australians about their culture and by a lack of inclusion (Krakouer, 2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are reportedly highly unrepresented in higher education comprising only 1.6% of the students out of a working age population of 2.7% (UA, 2011). Another study on Indigenous education (Gore, 2017) cites distrust of government institutions and social and racial isolation, where students feel "stranded in a racially bound social capital", as a key factor contributing towards prospective student non-attendance. Gore (2017) also asserts that once students enter university, retention rates are low as a consequence of a lack of cultural safety and support (Gore, 2017).

M. Willsher (B) · J. Oldfield

Batchelor Institute, Batchelor, NT, Australia e-mail: michele.willsher@batchelor.edu.au

197

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_11

Quite often, cultural competence and communication courses have revolved around the notion of cultural awareness and its link to the development of cultural intelligence and implications for creating cultural safe environments. Few such courses, however, address the direct relationship of racism on cultural safety or examine the social and historical colonial relations between Indigenous people and mainstream Australia and their impact on cross-cultural interactions (Smith-Maddox & Solorzano, 2002). Brown (2018, p. 2) notes that this is a consequence of the tendency for settler-colonial education systems to "dismiss" the "knowledge, stories and perspectives students carry with them into the classroom". This, Brown (2018) argues, is a consequence of the failure to critically engage with our past and "how it impacts both the present and the future" (Brown, 2018, p. 2). The result is continued educational disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Brown, 2018). This disengagement and lack of educational parity can be explained by the racial trauma inflicted upon Indigenous students as a consequence of their invisibility and the identity annihilation or death that occurs with Indigenous deficit construction and Indigenous identity devaluation—that is, the representation of Indigeneity as a problem and lack of identity validation (Oldfield & Jackson, 2019). The invisibility of Indigenous Australians in settler-colonial contexts, including educational contexts, and the continued deficit constructions and representations also ensure the population majority remains in a state of ignorance, racial pillorying and/or cultural incompetence (Oldfield & Jackson, 2019).

In league with Abrams and Moio (2009, p. 246), who noted the need to consider race as "a central mechanism of oppression" in order for social work students to achieve cultural competence, we argue that the incorporation of critical frameworks that deal with racial oppression, such as critical race theory (CRT), are essential to achieve a shift in focus, for course design that acknowledges the positioning of Indigenous people and develops a social justice and social reform agenda. The use of culturally responsive pedagogy that also incorporates the tenants of Freire (1972) in terms of Indigenous agency and liberation will also help to achieve this change and incorporate the aspirations of our Indigenous students. Apart from gains in cultural awareness and intelligence for students and/or academic skills, this will also achieve a more stable polity (May, 2008).

This chapter provides a personal, critical ethnographic reflection of the teaching practices involved in a cultural awareness course, at a tertiary institution and a university, both located in Northern Australia. It examines the need to embed such courses in the socio-historical context of Indigenous Australians so that all Australians have an opportunity for developing ethical intercultural understandings and subsequently to improve communication practices between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. This chapter firstly describes our approach or methodology; it then outlines the current literature on CRT and culturally responsive pedagogy, in relation to education and tackling "racism" as an ideology that undermines educational equity and ethics. It then discusses the design of the cultural competence unit that is the subject of this paper, its deficiencies in terms of addressing issues of race and its inappropriateness for Indigenous students. Finally, it presents a case for shifting the unit focus to one located within the history of colonisation in Australia. In summary, this chapter advocates for acknowledging the colonial past, addressing the neo-colonial present and collaboratively working towards a more sustainable and inclusive future.

#### **Our Approach**

In line with Freire's account of critical research and the involvement of educational research "subjects" as research partners in addition to the practice of "re-reading the world", this account draws from the two authors' lengthy experiences in First Nations education, living in remote Northern Territory communities; in addition to teaching First Nations students in higher education for more than a decade, our PhD and other research, and our exposure to the views of students and First Nations community residents (D'Olne Campos, 1990). That is, we have used our decadeslong understanding and experiences in the field to create a critical ethnographic reflective account of our teaching practices, which involves the attempt to realise the critical pedagogical research and "problem-posing" approach of Freire that gives rise to generative themes (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). In terms of this approach, our philosophy was underpinned by critical literacy which acknowledges and examines the inherent ideologies in the context of Indigenous education and "recolonised" spaces—a context of increasingly repressive policy and reform that has resulted in the dissolution of self-determination as a legitimated and normalised ideological tenet in Indigenous policy (Fairclough, 2013). The "problem-posing" strategy that arose from this thereby centred on themes generated in discussions on repressive policy. This problem-posing strategy framed both our design of the cultural awareness unit and its delivery; the design entailed the application of critical frameworks and content that accommodated the positioning of our students, while the delivery involved using culturally appropriate pedagogy, and getting students to identify Australian cultural intelligence issues and problems and ways to solve them. The qualitative literature reviewed below represents an overview of the literature related to these two key areas of critical theory and pedagogy.

#### **Critical Race Theory and Whiteness in Education**

Critical race theory and "Whiteness" studies originated in legal disciplines in the United States of America (US) and arose from a critical legal studies movement that recognised hegemony—maintenance of state power through the consent of all groups—as the basis of privilege (Chadderton, 2012). The interplay of hegemony and race in CRT was used to explain how "White privilege" was embedded in property rights, which endowed and legitimised White power and control to both mask and "enshrine the status quo as a neutral baseline" (Harris, 1993, p. 1715). This explained the degree to which White privilege remained with the introduction of civil rights legislation (Chadderton, 2012). That is, CRT recognised race as a socially constructed ideology that had material consequences (Pechenkina & Liu, 2018). As Pechenkina and Liu (2018, p. 2) note, CRT framedWhiteness as racial oppression which operates:

simultaneously [as] a location of racial privilege; a standpoint from which to look at oneself, others and society; and a way of being in the world through taken-for-granted social practices.

Critical Race Theory soon traversed across a range of disciplinary areas. By 1995, CRT entered educational discourse with Gloria Ladson-Billings and William Tate's article, "Toward a critical race theory of education". This article addressed the perpetual racialisation of school experiences for children as being marginalising but also unrecognised and under-theorised (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).

Entwined in this text were the works of Du Bois (1903) on double consciousness, the divided self of oppressor and oppressed. This presaged the latter work of Said (1978) and Orientalism in terms of the perpetual construction of privileged "Self" and deficient "Other" that continues to taint the life experiences of First Nations students. Said provided productive fodder for the critique of racial oppression in colonial sites and contributed to settler-colonial works in nation-states such as Australia, where the coloniser never leaves but establishes territorial sovereignty through the material and symbolic violent oppression of Indigenous people (Veracini, 2010). These works included those of Veracini (2010) and Wolfe (2006) that have specific relevance to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders since they outlined the genealogy of the invisibility of Indigenous people as a product of settler-colonial territoriality.

In terms of the major contributions of CRT to education, Dixson and Rousseau (2005) have succinctly outlined these, noting that they have derived from both the legal fraternity as well as educational disciplines, and that all focused on the notion of property as underlining White privilege. Dixson and Rousseu (2005) claim that *voice*—the racist experiences, narratives and counter-stories and knowledge of the non-dominant as a legitimate way of knowing—is perhaps the most important element of CRT in relation to education. However, they warn this must be accompanied by the analytical power of CRT literature, as well as social activism and a transformative agenda (Dixson & Rousseau, 2005).

The next major contribution is an *expansive or outcomes-based view of equality* versus a *restrictive understanding*. That is, rather than perceiving equality as a process and failing to acknowledge the impact of contemporary "actual outcomes" and "present manifestations of past injustice", an expansive view of equality both acknowledges the current structural impediments to equality and recognises racism as an ideology that is socially constructed and operates through discourse, policy and practice to recreate and legitimise White domination (Crenshaw, 1988; Pechenkina & Liu, 2018). This is also in line with the works of Foucault on the naturalisation of assumptions and unconscious beliefs and the discoursal stratification of groups (Foucault, 1977). Dixson and Rousseau (2005) remark that an expansive view of equality construes the phenomenon of teacher "colour blindness", for instance, as a problem. This is a consequence of the fact that this perspective or ideology obscures the role of institutions and those within them in sustaining "hierarchies" and "racial power" as well as pathologising non-dominant students (Dixson & Roussaue, 2005: 14). This in turn leads to patterns of underachievement and a lack of reflection by teachers on their practices (Dixson & Roussaue, 2005).

The third major element of CRT is its*transformative agenda* and goal of changing conditions of racial oppression. In relation to this, according to Pechenkina and Liu (2018, p. 2), CRT "seeks to destabilize the hegemonic status of 'whiteness' by revealing the invisible, naturalised ways it manifests, while providing people of colour and their white allies with the tools to challenge white supremacy". Contemporaneously, racial oppression is recognised in the higher education sector not only through overt aggressions, such as racial slurs, but also through more covert racism including the invisibility of "non-Whites" in the classroom (Pechenkina & Liu, 2018). This can be manifested as non-White students being overlooked for teacher attention; subject content and curricula being constructed with normative White perspectives (that conform to a cohesive national ideal or social good); and the presentation of sanitised "power neutral" social realities and histories (Ahmed, 2007; Pechenkina & Liu, 2018, p. 3). While CRT is an expedient tool to "ferret out" instruments of racial oppression and White normativity, as Dixson and Roussaeau (2005) acknowledge, its ability to transform has been little developed in the field of education, beyond the issuance of recommendations. This failure of CRT can, however, be ameliorated through Indigenous pedagogies and approaches, such as culturally sustaining pedagogy.

#### **Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy**

Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centred, social constructivist approach that is inclusive, culturally safe and respectful of culture; integrates culture and language practices /knowledge into teaching strategies; and is transformative since it is based on a social justice agenda and the critical engagement of students (Daniel-Mayes, 2016; Oldfield & Willsher, 2017). In culturally responsive pedagogy, learning is negotiated, scaffolded and cooperative, involving culturally and contextually situated social interaction and symbolic communication (Oldfield & Willsher, 2017). Learning activities comprise "real world" problem solving and action learning tasks that are hands on and inquiry-based (Oldfield & Willsher, 2017). However, in Indigenous contexts, this pedagogy can be extended into what is known as *culturally sustaining pedagogy*. Culturally sustaining pedagogy entails Indigenous territorial reclamation of educational institutions through Indigenous control. McCarty and Lee (2014) argue that culturally sustaining pedagogy in US Indigenous contexts involves a number of rights not necessarily applicable to other groups such as:

tribal sovereignty: the right of a people to self-government, self-education, and selfdetermination, including the right to linguistic and cultural expression according to local languages and norms. (McCarty & Lee, 2014, p. 101)

Although tribal sovereignty is not acknowledged in the Australian Constitution or codified in Australian treaties or laws (including native title), Australia is a signatory to many human rights tenets, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Korosy, 2008). The doctrines embedded in this declaration affirm Indigenous people's rights to self-determination, autonomy, selfgovernment and the establishment and self-control of Indigenous education systems and Indigenous language institutions. This would suggest that in Australia, there is an acknowledgement of the sovereignty of Indigenous people, albeit a modest one.

In Australia, this acknowledgement began with the introduction of bilingual education in 1974 (Collins, 1999). Based on the Navajo bilingual bicultural education systems that evolved in the 1960s, this initially involved biliteracy and bilingualism (Education and Welfare Group Legislative Research Service, 1973). However, in many sites, bilingual biliteracy programs did not entail biculturalism (Marika, 2000); rather, bilingualism biliteracy was taught through a monocultural dominant lens. By the 1980s, however, a new Indigenous pedagogy, titled Both Ways, had emerged with the greater Aboriginalisation of schools (Marika, 2000).<sup>1</sup> Both Ways, a form of culturally sustaining pedagogy, entailed a centric view of Indigenous language and culture in pedagogy, curricula and lesson creation and delivery and involved cooperative learning and symbolic interaction in culturally appropriate ways (Ober and Bat, 2007). As noted by Ober (2009, p. 39):

Both-ways education is about drawing on and acknowledging skills, language, knowledge, concepts and understandings from both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems … It is our way of telling our stories, it's about our way of making meaning in our world, both-ways is about going from the known to the unknown, using current knowledge as a springboard to gain new conceptual academic understandings, both-ways teaching and learning is being open-minded enough to see that there are alternative methods of reaching a goal, than following a strictly mainstream approach.

Both Ways as a social constructivist pedagogy evolved at a time when selfmanagement, self-determination, community development and control reached its primacy in Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory (Ober, 2009). At this stage, Aboriginal people were returning to their homelands from urban centres and establishing settlements in what became known as the "homelands movement". This transmigration also led Aboriginal teachers to search for more culturally appropriate teaching methods (Ober, 2009). Both Ways evolved with a focus on social practice as well as intellectual growth and understanding of two worlds—Indigenous and western—which was recognised could only occur with the linguistic and place-based engagement of students to achieve a deeper cognitive development (Fogarty & Kral,

<sup>1</sup>While the Aboriginalisation of schools hit a "high point" during the 1980s and early 1990s, the reduction in self-determination at all levels of the education process has meant that bilingual and/or Both Ways is now very poorly understood, supported, resourced and implemented. Only a few teaching staff maintain Freirean perceptions of education. As it is beyond the scope of this chapter to detail these developments and history, please refer to Devlin, Disbray, and Devlin (2017) as well as Oldfield and Lo Bianco (2019).

2011; Oldfield andWillsher, 2017).<sup>2</sup> BothWays at our institute also entailed the works of Paulo Freire, particularly in terms of the tenets within Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972)—of critiquing structural domination, the political ideologies of schooling and the collective transformation that can follow. In the twenty-first century, these ideas have metamorphosed into the postmodern equivalents of critiquing and subverting discoursal subjugation and the "regimes of truth" (the dominant deficit discourse of the "other" that becomes a "truth" in the public domain, as a consequence of power) (Foucault, 1972, 1977). It is this discoursal critique that is also now a feature of Both Ways. Both Ways at our institute also entailed the three stages of Freire's problem-posing methodology—identifying a social problem, identifying the causes of the problem and finding solutions (Smith-Maddox, 2002). It is these methodological principles that are the most important, in terms of effectiveness and positive academic outcomes, in teaching cultural competence to our students.

#### **Current Course**

The cultural awareness unit that is the subject of this chapter is offered through a university in Northern Australia, at its various campus locations. It has online and face-to-face modes of delivery so that it can cater to students both close to campus sites and across Australia with the use of digital literacies. Since 2012, this university and our educational institution have been working in partnership to deliver courses with the university focusing on mainstream non-Indigenous students, and the only or primary cohort of the institute being Indigenous students. The courses that are taught in partnership are those that have been identified by the Institute's strategic plan in the areas of health, education and Indigenous languages, social sciences and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges.

The cultural awareness unit is a compulsory "common" first-year unit designed by the university and is also delivered by the institute for Indigenous students. The university's cultural awareness and capability unit has a primary focus on mainstream students, although international students are also enrolled since, as noted above, it is a compulsory common unit, designed to help students further develop their academic literacies. It is really an awareness raising course, predominantly exposing students to new academic concepts associated with culture, experience and behaviour, cultural awareness and cultural intelligence, which it does through academic literature as well as drawing from the personal accounts of students themselves. Its aim is to induct students into the cross-cultural relations and interactions required of them as students and, later, as professionals in remote, national and international contexts.

<sup>2</sup>Place-based pedagogy, where pedagogy occurs in the natural environment, draws more deeply on Indigenous ecological and cultural knowledge than in any other environment since this is where conceptual and linguistic knowledge are most deeply rooted in Indigenous cultures. Place-based pedagogy is learning on and through the land. It is embedded in Both Ways as part of the "experiential" phase of learning, which is later explored linguistically and cognitively in the classroom with additional activities.

Given the focus on dominant students, course material is designed from a dominant perspective. The topic on culture is created to allow students to develop an awareness of their own "normative" culture as well as self-awareness of normative dominant assumptions and normative dominant values and behaviours. In addition to attaining an understanding of the multiplicities of the self, examination of these elements is viewed as a way to develop in students the metacognitive skills necessary to achieve cultural intelligence. The assumed development of these domains, in turn, is eventually used to analyse an environment for cultural safety and recommend "actions on how people can improve their cultural capabilities".

Colonial territoriality and White hegemony are evident in the material for this unit as there is limited reference to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders' experience or histories. This lack of Indigenous representation is acknowledged by the current course coordinators and developers who are in the process of rectifying the situation. We argue that this situation of Indigenous invisibility is a common one across university sectors (although there are certainly exceptions). This has also been noted by Fredericks (2009) who argued that universities continue to "reproduce imperial attitudes and processes which marginalise and exclude us while proclaiming they want to include us". As discussed above, Wolfe (2006) perceived this as a process of territoriality where strategies of elimination and dispossession result in the invisibility of Indigenous identities, language and culture or the creation of a deficit Indigenous construction to justify dispossession and elimination in a process that Wolfe (2006, p. 403) has labelled "structural genocide".

The process of structural genocide is also visible in the historical narratives that either sanitise history or give the appearance of a temporal rupture where there is a past, present or future break from a colonial genocidal history (Strakosch & Macoun, 2012). This is also achieved by discoursal construction; for example, where remote communities are constructed as "set apart from the body of the nation and as the locus of unspeakable violence and abjection" (Strakosch & Macoun, 2012, p. 13). This is underpinned by a "temporal logic" where Indigenous political groups, and particularly remote people, are constructed in terms of a primitive non-liberal past that resides in the present (Strakosch & Macoun, 2012, p. 48). It is exactly this logic that the lecturers in the institute, in conjunction with students, are engaged in "debunking" in the final part of the cultural competence unit, with its focus on Pilger's (2013) *Utopia*—a treatise on racism against (particularly remote) Indigenous people.

#### **Need for Cultural Responsiveness**

As noted above, since 2012, the institute has been delivering the university's cultural awareness and capability unit to its higher degree Indigenous students. The institute's mode of delivery is multi-modal and, unlike external university unit delivery, includes delivery both online (throughout the semester) and block, where students come to the institute campus, stay on site and receive two weeks of intensive face-to-face teaching (one week at the beginning of the semester and one week at the end).

In contrast with the majority of students at the university, all students at the institute are Indigenous and have invariably suffered from resource deprivation in their earlier schooling. This is largely a consequence of inequity in education, such as instruction in standard English as opposed to their own Indigenous language or dialect; the marked cultural differences between Indigenous students, their school teachers and the school as a western institution with foreign norms, values, metaphors and languages; marginalisation and the education system's low expectation of Indigenous student's achievements (Oldfield, 2016). These factors have invariably led to early exits from schooling for Indigenous students (Oldfield & Willsher, 2017). Apart from a school experience that fails to align with Indigenous students' language and culture, those students are the subject of racism related to colonisation in other domains; for example, invisibility of culture, language and identity; deficit constructions; daily harassment and racial slurs. This is noted by Ferninand, Paradies, and Kelaher (2013, p. 19), who relayed that 66% of respondents in a survey conducted in Victoria reported racist acts such as "beings spat at" and having "something thrown at them". According to Wolfe (2006), racial slurs, invisibility of culture and language and even genocide are a product of settler-colonial territoriality. As part of the claim for territory, language congruence in terms of Standard Australian English has become the most powerful symbol of belonging and legitimacy for the Australian nation-state (Wolfe, 2006; Oldfield, 2016).

It is this experience of the disparate norms, values, cultures and languages and the negative Indigenous representations and constructions by the wider society, in addition to the multi-dialectical, multi-linguistic and multicultural experiences within and between Indigenous communities, that has led the students of the institute to have delayed their entry into tertiary studies and also to have developed highly sophisticated metacognitive and cognitive understandings of diverse cultures and ideologies. We use here Ang and Van Dyne's (2008, p. 4) model of cultural intelligence where metacognition can be related to awareness, referring to the "processes of individuals use to acquire and understand knowledge", while cognition is "individual knowledge and knowledge structures". As such, the current unit, written for mainstream students, was highly inappropriate for students who were already lay "experts" in the field (Oldfield & Willsher, 2017). In addition, the unit, largely devoid of Indigenous stories or experiences, appeared to reinforce Whiteness (via hegemonic ideologies of settler-colonial territoriality and Indigenous invisibility) and so could result in learning resistance and, thereby, academic failure (Cummins, 1996).

Given the somewhat sporadic educational history of some of our students and the mismatch between home and school languages and literacies, few students of the institute had experiences, or successful experiences, of an academic learning environment or with academic literacies; and some had limited Standard Australian English and/or experience with digital literacies. Boulton-Lewis, Wilss & Lewis (2003) identified these elements as factors that can cause potential dissonance between learning strategies and the demands of learning tasks for students. That is, students can fail to identify and apply in their tertiary studies the deeper metacognitive learning tasks required for academic study, such as monitoring, elaborating, interpreting and analysing—as opposed to memorising, understanding or acquiring (Boulton-Lewis et al., 2003). The strategies applied to ameliorate this dissonance were based on Freire's pedagogical approach, in addition to critical theory.

#### **What We Changed**

As a consequence of our long experience in Indigenous education and Indigenous higher education, rather than viewing our students as if they were in deficit, both lecturers came with the view that we were dealing with students who had rich resources: cultural experience, insight into "White Australia" (were lay experts in Whiteness studies), and cross-cultural and multilingual experiences (with many having family members from disparate Indigenous tribal and language groups) (Biermann & Townsend-Cross, 2008). The Both Ways/culturally responsive philosophy of embedding lesson content and tasks in a student's culture and language was augmented by both lecturers' acknowledgement of Indigenous sovereignty and an acute understanding of the political processes of colonisation.

These elements of our teaching approach at the institute meant that there was a focus on collectivism, which translated into open class discussions and considerable group work, as opposed to individual work, in order for students to collectively unpack or create texts. This was facilitated by explicit teaching of academic and digital literacies and the use of translanguaging in discussions (code-switching between Aboriginal English, Standard Australian English and academic discourse) so that students could use a wider linguistic repertoire and reduce cognitive load (Wei, 2017; Gutierez & Kim, 2017). This was particularly effective in relation to studying academic texts which were read aloud by individuals in the class and interpreted by the whole group.

Discussion also centred on critical consciousness, where students unpacked their lives in relation to a broader social landscape of invasion, colonisation and Indigenous agency, similar to Freire's "Culture Circle" (Freire, 1988). "Stories", with teacher guidance and input, provided the structure through which students could access western critical theory (neo-colonial theory, Marxist and postmodern theory) and apply Indigenous knowledge to create a Both Ways type of learning approach between teacher and student. These processes allowed a validation of student voices as co-constructors of, and experts on, knowledge as well as providing them with the analytical and language skills required of academia (McLoughlin & Oliver, 2000).

Given the invisibility of Indigenous agents and cultural perspectives in the unit material, both lecturers also consciously invoked culturally sustaining/responsive pedagogy and critical theory in terms of unit content and delivery, in order to avoid marginalisation, disempowerment and the isolation of our students (Malcolm & Rochecoste, 2003). This was achieved by including and/or rewriting some material so that it had Indigenous agency and perspectives and ensuring requirements for assessment tasks (academic discourse and digital literacies) were explicitly taught and clearly located within the students' own political and social experiences (Boulton-Lewis, 2003). As mentioned, we focused the teaching and learning as well as resources on both studies of cultural competence and Whiteness, which included personal experiences of exclusion and racism. This led to a close analysis of the constructions and representations of Aboriginality, and how this can impact on cultural awareness and cultural intelligence. We also used readings that clearly showed a discipline-specific, but explicit, relationship between cultural awareness and cultural intelligence. Although they were perhaps problematic in terms of the high level of academic discourse, they replaced readings that were less specific and less coherent. In addition, lecturers capitalised on Indigenous identity by introducing a session on learning an Indigenous language. This session provided students with a small but meaningful opportunity to learn Gupapuyŋu, an Aboriginal Language of North East Arnhem Land. This exposure to a local Aboriginal language and the subsequent examination of how language encompasses and reproduces culture and cultural perspectives allowed students to discuss similarities and differences between their own Aboriginal cultures and further analyse the varieties of Aboriginal identities.

In relation to assessments, while the initial assessments remained the same since they were focused on the individual student, involving the investigation of "yourself as a cultural being" as well as a visual mind map of the "four elements of culture", later assessments focused more specifically on Indigenous experience. The critical reflective essay allowed students to link personal experience to Whiteness, cultural awareness and cultural intelligence; that is, students were expected to reflect on and analyse their experiences, in terms of analysing the level and distinctive characteristics of the cultural awareness and intelligence of White subjects, and how this influenced the subject's further development of cultural intelligence and cultural competence.

Analysis of Whiteness was even more pronounced and explicit for the final report, whereby students studied an Australia Day excerpt (set in Circular Quay, Sydney) from the John Pilger documentary, *Utopia*, which is a 2013 documentary that outlines contemporary Indigenous oppression and colonisation. The territoriality clearly seen in Pilger's interviews with White subjects gave students considerable scope to link Whiteness, CRT and settler-colonial theory with those of cultural intelligence and cultural competence. It was in this final report that students were also able to engage with Freire's (1972) problem-posing methodology most deeply, through identifying the problem, its causes and solutions. In this process, the social problem of "colonial racism" against Indigenous people was identified as preventing dominant group cultural awareness and competency; while the causes of the problem were viewed to be the result of settler-colonial ideologies inhibiting different aspects of the subject's metacognition, which consequently led to a lack of cognition. Finally, the solutions were shown as recommendations of a report that included Indigenous languages and culture educational responses, in addition to alternative dates for Australia Day, and symbolic representation of Indigenous people in terms of place and street names, flags and historical markers. This engagement with the problem-posing approach allowed students to openly express their positionality and experiences in relation to the topic and view White privilege and hegemony as an object of study as well as a challenge and problem to be collectively resolved—as opposed to accepting conditions of perpetual oppression, and the cultural deficit discourse. Using these mechanisms and strategies, we were also implementing the transformative agenda of CRT (Pechenkina & Liu, 2018).

#### **What Are the Implications of These Changes?**

It is the belief of these authors that a failure to deeply focus on such processes, instrumentalities and technologies of settler-colonialism, on Indigenous socio-historical and contemporary experience as well as Indigenous positionality, will result in cultural competence courses continuing to blind non-Indigenous people to the perpetual structural invasion of, and effects of, institutional and systematic racism against Indigenous people. It is only through a reformist agenda, which Potocky (1997) labels the "anti-oppression model", can tertiary students achieve a deep understanding of the colonial forces which continue to reproduce structural racism, territorial invasion and structural genocide. Without a focus on these elements, cultural competence courses will continue to facilitate the perpetuation of settler-colonial strategies and unceasing oppression of marginalised groups.

Alternatively, framing a unit of study on cultural awareness and cultural intelligence in the context of Aboriginal history and colonisation has potential benefits for all learners. Firstly, for Aboriginal students, it affirms their identity and experiences and offers them an opportunity to access academic literature to support their responses to, and experiences with, a broader Australian audience. Analysing Pilger's Australia Day footage and developing an action plan for creating a safe space required students to build a measured and attainable response. For non-Indigenous students, this task provides an opportunity to analyse another's perspective and then to plan and evaluate possible solutions. For non-Indigenous Australian and "International" students, it provides an opportunity to reflect on race relations and the technologies of colonisation and so contribute towards helping build a more respectful relationship with Indigenous people.

In 1991, the situation of Australian workplaces was described by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody as being places where "professionals largely operated within a neo-colonial framework and were generally ignorant of knowledge and understanding of Indigenous cultures, worldview, histories and contemporary situations and lacked practical skills and strategies for working effectively in Indigenous contexts" (cited in UA, 2011. p. 18). Some 25 years later, Krakouer (2015) concluded, in a literature review, that Indigenous students still remain marginalised by non-Indigenous Australians who display a lack of awareness about Indigenous culture and history. McConnochie and Nolan (2004, cited in UA, 2011) explain that one of the key issues to emerge out of their research was the need for non-Indigenous people to be aware of how their own behaviours and attitudes impact on Indigenous people both inside and outside the workplace. There is an ongoing need for universities to offer programs that not only provide time for students to acknowledge their own cultural history and ways of being but also provide opportunities to develop an empathy with other cultural groups. López (2009) defines this as "interculturalism" and promotes this approach when teaching minority groups located within settler-colonial contexts. May (2008) maintains such empathy and recognition of cultural and linguistic difference will lead to a cultural pluralism, denoted by group rights and characterised by greater political stability. This contrasts with the current system of dominant hegemony, marginalisation of other groups, injustice and disadvantage, that inflames racial hatred and revolt and makes us all politically vulnerable (May, 2008).

#### **Conclusion**

This chapter has reported on the relevance of Freire's pedagogical and research approach, CRT and settler-colonial theory, for designing cultural competence subjects in undergraduate programs. It has also discussed the need to employ culturally responsive pedagogy when teaching Indigenous students, to ensure academic development and engagement with tasks. This chapter has specifically examined the need for university intercultural communication units to acknowledge the colonial history of the past and address the systemic racism of the present, in order to contribute to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people collaboratively working towards a more sustainable and inclusive future. There is ample evidence in University Australia's *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* that intercultural education embedded in a sociohistorical context can play a key role in transforming communication practices within society as a whole (UA, 2011). Opportunities for non-Indigenous people to understand the problematic history of culture contact should be an integral part of any undergraduate course. The words of Sally Morgan, who gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (Elliott, 1991), still have relevance today as we seek to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians a place to be listened to, talk and learn together.

In the telling we assert the validity of our own experiences and we call the silence of two hundred years a lie. And it is important for you, the listener, because like it or not, we are part of you. We have to find a way of living together in this country, and that will only come when our hearts, minds and wills are set towards reconciliation. It will only come when thousands of stories have been spoken and listened to with understanding. (Sally Morgan cited in Elliot, 1991, para. 10.10.8)

#### **References**


**Michele Willsher** commenced working in bilingual education programs in the early 1980s in the Northern Territory. Since then she has furthered her interest in language teaching and teacher education by working with Indigenous people in Australia as well as in China, Vietnam and Laos. She completed research for her Ph.D. in Laos, and has since then undertaken teaching and research projects, both in Australia and international, in the areas of teacher education, language and literacy education.

**Janine Oldfield** has worked in higher education as an English as a Second Language academic English instructor/lecturer and higher education lecturer since 1995. She has a Ph.D. in education (language planning and policy). Her primary work focuses on English literacy education for Indigenous students, in addition to Indigenous bilingual education and critical Indigenous language education policy analysis in Indigenous contexts. Janine also researches pedagogical theory in relation to Indigenous students, and colonial/whiteness studies in Indigenous education.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Part IV Practice and Programs**

The practice of embedding cultural competence programs in higher education is the focus of this part. Rosanne Quinnell, Jakelyn Troy and Matthew Poll contend that integrating Indigenous languages into landscape design is a way of reinforcing and rearticulating Indigenous languages. They provide three cases of making visible on the University of Sydney campus grounds the language derived from Gadigal country. Quinnell, Troy and Poll believe that language revitalisation initiatives are proving to be a powerful strategy for enacting cultural change and are a physical embodiment of cultural competence. Amani Belland her colleagues explore the concept of students and staff working in partnership to examine and change higher education which, they argue, unsettle long-entrenched hierarchies and the privileging of certain knowledges in higher education. They detail how the Student Ambassador initiative can better support an ambitious program of higher education curriculum renewal in the area of cultural competence. Rebecca Cross and her colleagues assert that incorporating cultural competence into the higher education sector is paramount to the creation of cross-cultural settings where undergraduates and academics can develop understandings of how culture and belief systems influence professional decisionmaking. Their chapter addresses why they believe cultural competence is essential in tertiary curricula and describes the process undertaken by them to integrate cultural competence into the science curricula. Kerrie E. Doyle and her colleagues report on an applied Indigenous proficiency workshop as an approach to embedding cultural competence in a faculty. They conclude that adopting a humanistic approach from core values such as social justice and dignity is the most appropriate starting point for developing such programs. In the same vein, Bronwyn Fredericks and Debbie Bargallie focus on teaching Indigenous cultural competence training courses within Australian higher education institutions. They use one institution as a case study and share how they came to centre race within an Indigenous cultural competence training course demonstrating the interplay of power, whiteness, race, culture and "other" within such training. Penny Haora shares a London-based project of immersion that intersected with gendered, class and racially based maternity services research, practice and learning. Haora attests that the opportunity to undertake the project in a reflective and informed way was an important learning experience. Tran Nguyen and Donna Hartz discuss the literature relating to international students in Australia and their employment experience. In the review, Nguyen and Hartz focus on the specific aspects of cultural competence that they believe are essential to advance employability for international students in Australia including knowledge, social initiatives, flexibility, emotional stability, self-reflection and the ability to see multiple worldviews.

## **Chapter 12 The Sydney Language on Our Campuses and in Our Curriculum**

**Rosanne Quinnell, Jakelyn Troy, and Matthew Poll**

Now my motivations … so, my aspirations for all of this is of course first and foremost, I want to learn my own language again, I want to have that knowledge point. People ask me how to speak, "do you speak Aboriginal?" I feel like that's a really weird question, but yes, I can. Second of all, I want to bring that back to my family. I want them to have that same feeling. Going one level higher, I don't want there to be a single person left in Sydney who was convinced that my language is dead. I want everyone in Sydney to have the opportunity to learn this language if they so choose. I want them to be able to learn at school or be able to go to a tape or a university, do linguistics, majoring in Gadigal language. That would be incredible…. I think it's wild that in high school, I learned Spanish and Italian and I don't remember any of it … I didn't feel any connection to it whatsoever (Joel Davison, cited in Troy & Poll, 2018).

#### **Introduction**

Language lies at the heart of cultural identity. Prior to colonisation in 1788, there were more than 250 Indigenous Australian languages in Australia (Walsh, 1993; Walsh, Marmion, & Troy, 2014). Up until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, prohibitions were in place that banned most Aboriginal people from speaking their own languages (Maier, 2010; Reid, 2010). Many of the "sleeping"1 pre-contact

R. Quinnell (B)

J. Troy

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

#### M. Poll University Museums, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

<sup>1</sup>Rather than being referred to as a "dead" language, the term for Indigenous languages in the process of revitalisation is "sleeping" (Hobson et al., 2010).

Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: Rosanne.Quinnell@sydney.edu.au

languages are undergoing revitalisation (Hobson et al., 2010), a process that requires respectful action and acknowledgement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's deep connection to the cultural, philosophical and spiritual concepts of land and land tenure. In 2016, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) made this declaration:

It is through language that we communicate with the world, define our identity, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society, to name but a few. Through language, people preserve their community's history, customs and traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking, meaning and expression. They also use it to construct their future. (UNESCO, 2016)

To highlight the importance of Indigenous languages in strengthening the position of Indigenous cultures on a global scale, UNESCO declared 2019 the year of Indigenous languages. At the University of Sydney, like institutions in other parts of Australia, we are recognising our responsibility to acknowledge and preserve Aboriginal Australia's heritage. At the local level, the focus on Indigenous languages on our campuses provides opportunities to connect the higher education community with Indigenous culture. We offer these connections to Indigenous language through the creation of interdisciplinary collaborations across the arts and the sciences, spanning linguistics, botany, art and museum studies. The University grounds cover urban areas (inner-city and suburban) and regional areas across Australia (e.g. Broken Hill, Lismore, Dubbo, Orange, Camden, Nowley and Narrabri). The "Sydney Language" is the language of the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of the University of Sydney's main inner-city campus. The Sydney Language, spoken for tens of thousands of years pre-colonisation, is in revival, and the survival of this language is a proactive declaration of the strong living presence of the Gadigal people in the University's community.

Sydney has been the realm of Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. The harbour was referred to as Guru, or "deep water". In 1788, the British invaded at Waran (the place we now call Sydney Cove, Port Jackson). The lands of the Gadigal people stretched along the southern side of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), from South Head to around what is now known as Petersham, and to the Cooks River to the south (Attenbrow, 2009a). Although much of Sydney was renamed post-contact, around and about the city and surrounding suburbs language remnants survive. In this way, the words of the Sydney Aboriginal languages still permeate the Australian vernacular. Suburbs, beaches, street names are adorned with Aboriginal words that have persisted into the twenty-first century, despite many of the original associations (i.e. the words and meanings) having become disassociated. The persistence of these words creates bridges between the present and past. Reinstating the original place names and having these names enter common usage is one way to enable the Sydney Language to be preserved (Troy & Walsh, 2009). The ways Aboriginal language words sit in sentences, for example, in place names and the names of flora and fauna, are a testament to the resilience of Indigenous language and reinforce the connection between the Gadigal landscape and language over countless generations.

Sydney's Aboriginal communities were some of the first to be colonised, and today, Sydney is a diaspora of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from many communities across Australia. Many stories of resilience and determination have had their beginnings here. Sydney has been the site of cultural, political and artistic revolutions that have placed the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the national agenda. The national significance and political importance of campaigns that began at the University specifically include the Students Action for Aborigines in the 1960s, and the gravity of the Freedom Ride of 1965 cannot be understated. Both were led by Charles Perkins,2 an Arrernte man born in Alice Springs, and both had significant impacts with respect to the positive outcome in the 1967 Referendum (Nugent, 2013; National Museum of Australia, 2014).

Sitting closer to the curriculum, the Koori Centre was established at the University of Sydney in the late 1980s to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled at the University, and to teach into the mainstream curriculum, by offering specialised knowledge on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs and education. A national focus on cultural competence in university curricula was declared by Universities Australia (UA) in 2011 (2011a, 2011b), and, in response, the University revised and broadened their cultural competence remit in the curriculum, and across the campus as a whole, in 2012. The University of Sydney closed the Koori Centre and established the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) in 2014 with a focus on the broadscale adoption of a cultural competence pedagogy (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017) across the University, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are culturally safe and Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) are privileged in their own right. Cultural competence is a "graduate quality" and is highlighted in the University's 2016–2020 strategic plan (The University of Sydney, 2016a).

There is power in language to create spaces where the notion of cultural competence can be discussed. The University of Sydney has become an active site of major reconstruction of suppressed histories and linguistic reclamations by contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples.

Language is pivotal in the areas of human rights protection, good governance, peace building, reconciliation, and sustainable development. A person's right to use his or her chosen language is a prerequisite for freedom of thought, opinion and expression, access to education and information, employment, building inclusive societies, and other values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (UNESCO, 2018)

A wealth of historical documents with linguistic notations from the First Fleet, which arrived in Sydney 1788, have been used for language reconstruction, the linguistic notions being particularly crucial as there are few native speakers of the Sydney Language. In the 1980s, Jakelyn Troy, a Ngarigu woman, meticulously scoured historical records of the early Sydney colony to create a dictionary of the Sydney Language (Troy, 1994). This work breathed life back into the Sydney Language and was able to offer language framed by a reconstruction of Sydney's Aboriginal past by drawing together many pieces of historical information from

<sup>2</sup>To honour Charles Perkins and to continue to focus attention on Indigenous and non-Indigenous race relations, an annual oration, the Charles Perkins Memorial AO Oration, has been held at the University since 2001. The Charles Perkins portrait, painted by Daniel Boyd in 2017, hangs in the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.

diverse sources including diaries, notebooks, governmental reports and people's private correspondences. The several thousands of words sourced from historical material created an assemblage of what words sounded like, to the ears of English speakers. This is an important distinction as when there are no fluent speakers of a language, its reconstruction relies on the crucial aspect of pronunciation. This approach to uncovering languages offers evidence not only of where the language comes from, but also who was able to participate in the teaching and sharing of language. These notebooks are archived in libraries and museums in Australia and overseas, and although the attribution for authorship of these notebooks on language rarely acknowledges the source, there are a few notable exceptions.

#### **Patyegarang and the Gift of Language**

There are about 27 clan groups in the Sydney area, making this area socially complex. In the historical records, no name was given to the language of Sydney, with the "Sydney Language" being used to describe the language that was likely common to these clans (Troy, 1992, 2018); the language is also referred to, for example, as the Gadigal language by the Gadigal people, and the Dharug language. The Sydney Language is in the Pama–Nyungan language family which is the most widespread language family in Australia (Bowern & Atkinson, 2012).

In Sydney, at first contact, there were a few notable teachers, mostly Gadigal women, who shared their language (Troy, 1992, 2018). Patyegarang, named after the eastern grey kangaroo, or *badagarang*, taught her language to Lieutenant Dawes, an officer of the First Fleet. for the Endeavour RiverDawes was sent out to Sydney to make astronomical and weather observations. While Patyegarang, no doubt, had friends among the other officers of the First Fleet, Dawes, in particular, became an early language champion among his own people, the English colonial invaders. Like many Aboriginal women, Patyegarang was a cultural intermediary for her people; at that time, Aboriginal women were often the people who shared language and cultural knowledge. This was because the women, especially the young women, were more flexible than the men with respect to forming social relationships (Troy, 1992). Boys becoming men were more constricted than women regarding to whom they could talk, and as men grew older and more senior, they became more socially constricted (Troy, 2018). Women's social status and social positions also changed with age, but based on historical records, it would seem that women had a very strong role in brokering relationships between peoples.

Patyegarang met and talked with William Dawes at a place known as Dawes Point Battery, now dual-named with the Gadigal place name *Tar*-*ra* (Troy & Walsh, 2009). *Tar*-*ra* is where Sydney Harbour Bridge comes across to the south side of the city. On the site, there is a little stone observatory, built by Dawes, where he made his observations of celestial bodies. Specifically, Dawes was waiting to observe a comet that was predicted to appear in 1788. Dawes sat at *Tar*-*ra* and talked to the young woman, Patyegarang, with both languages being shared.

**Fig. 12.1** Extract from Dawes notebook (Dawes et al., 2009)

Patyegarang and Dawes talked about the patterns in the natural environment. Applying botanical knowledge was part of everyday practice, and women had a lot of engagement with plants; for example, they made string bags out of the fibre. As a woman in her community, Patyegarang was responsible for making fishing lines out of *kurrajong* [*Brachychiton populneus* (Schott & Endl) R.Br. Family Malvaceae] and helping to build canoes, as well as building the fires that went onto the canoes where they would catch and cook fish.

The conversations between Patyegarang and William Dawes, where Patyegarang gifted her language, included lists of plants, their uses and, in many instances, the names by which those plants were known by the Aboriginal people of the Sydney region. Dawes recorded the information provided by Patyegarang in his notebooks (Dawes, Rayner, & Brown, 2009). Dawes' notebooks record Patyegarang's generosity with her language and include content that speaks of the trusting relationship between the two. One entry from Dawes' notebooks is as follows. "Putuw£: To warm one's hand by the fire & then to squeeze gently the fingers of another person" (see Fig. 12.1).

#### **Reimagining Patyegarang's Gift of Language in Contemporary Educational Contexts**

Relinking Indigenous languages with artefacts has become a global movement particularly in the contexts of museums (Simpson, 2009), as has relinking Aboriginal place names back to their origins (Attenbrow, 2009b; Troy & Walsh, 2009). Preserving and offering the Sydney Language on the University of Sydney's campuses is being undertaken in new and innovating ways. Like the scenario between Patyegarang and Dawes, these offerings are the result of a transdisciplinary and transcultural collaboration. We have harnessed mobile technology to offer plant names in the Sydney Language, and so Patyegarang's botanical vocabulary has become accessible to our students (particularly students in biology), staff and the community at large, via the "Campus Flora app". Using the Campus Flora app to identify plants by the names as known by Patyegarang and her people for millennia is enabling language revitalisation on lands where there have been generational observations, learnings and teachings by the Gadigal. In offering the Sydney Language, Campus Flora teaches experiential-based knowledge of place and that knowledge and language are interwoven.

Oral histories in language are able to transmit and preserve careful environmental observations—observations that have been aggregated across generations.

Oral traditions, especially contrasted with written history, are typically portrayed as inaccurate…. So can preliterate Indigenous languages tell us anything factual about the distant past, or does the transmission of historical facts become inevitably corrupted? (Reid, Nunn, & Sharpe, 2014, p. 1)

Despite the view that written histories are more credible, the effectiveness of oral transmission of knowledge is well documented (Brown, 2013; Fernández-Llamazares & Cabeza, 2018). For example, transgenerational observations of the sea level rise, the crashing to earth of meteorites and the cosmography of the night time sky are part of a rich and complex repository of countless generations of accumulated observations, enshrined in cultural knowledges and carried by languages.

Changes in sea levels around the Australian coast are now well established. Marine geographers can now point to specific parts of the Australian coast and know with some confidence what the sea levels were at a particular time before the present…. [due to a] substantial body of Australian Aboriginal stories that appear to represent genuine and unique observations of post-glacial increases in sea level, at time depths that range from about 13,400–7500 years BP … [making] … the case that endangered Indigenous languages can be repositories for factual knowledge across time depths far greater than previously imagined, forcing a rethink of the ways in which such traditions have been dismissed. (Reid et al., 2014, p. 1)

Preserving the Gadigal knowledges that are embedded in the Gadigal language goes beyond meeting obligations for Indigenous cultures to be practised and expressed. There are very real ecological knowledges and knowledge transference processes across transgenerational boundaries that deserve far greater understanding than is presently the case. This is particularly relevant to knowledges that are still linked with Indigenous languages and to the knowledge post-translation.

#### **The Site of the University's Camperdown Campus**

The Camperdown campus along with Victoria Park was known to early settlers as the "kangaroo ground". "Kangaroo" is a European variant on the Murri3 word for kangaroo ("*gangurru*"—language: Guugu Yimithirr). The word kangaroo was brought into the Sydney region by Europeans with Captain Cook, when navigating the Endeavour River4 in July 1770, who documented that a kangaroo was "an Animal

<sup>3</sup>Murris are Indigenous Australians from Queensland, north-west New South Wales; the Guugu Yimithirr language is from far north Queensland.

<sup>4</sup>*Wabalumbaal* is the Guugu Yimithirr name for the Endeavour River.

something less than a greyhound", and noting the name used by the local Murri people as "Kangooroo or Kanguru" (Cook & Wharton, 1893). The Guugu Yimithirr name for "kangaroo" was imported into the colony of New South Wales by non-Aboriginal people; the Aboriginal groups around Sydney had not heard of "kangaroos" before and assumed the word also referred to sheep, horses and cows (Karskens, cited Griffiths, 2015). Early colonial officers Watkin Tench and David Collins both wrote of the agricultural potential of the "Kangooroo Ground", with Collins (1798, pp. 266– 267) recognising that "the ground lay well for cultivation; but it had hitherto been neglected, from its being deficient in the very essential requisite of water".

The Gadigal people regularly exploited the ecology of the "kangaroo ground" in pre-European times for food and other resources (Pearson et al., 2002). The bark of the Sally wattle (*Acacia falcata* Willd) could be used to stupefy fish, and the sap of the red bloodwood (*Corymbia gummifera* (Gaertn.) K. D. Hill & L. A. S. Johnson) was extracted to treat fishing lines and stop them fraying. The fruit of the native cherry (*Exocarpus cupressiformis* Labill.) and the roots of the clover sorrel (*Oxalis corniculata L*.) were common sources of nutrients, while the leaves of headache vine (*Clematis glycinoides* DC) were often crushed and the scent inhaled to relieve headaches. The long-leaf mat rush (*Lomandra longifolia* Labill.), for example, would have grown on the "kangaroo grounds" and, in addition to its nectar, was a valued material for making baskets. Blue flax-lily (*Dianella caerulea* Sims and *Dianella revoluta* R.Br.) were also valued for their fibres.

Despite there being available a reasonable level of knowledge about the precontact history of the University's campus grounds, many (or arguably most) of people in the campus community are not aware of, or not readily able to access, these cultural narratives. Strategies to make the Sydney Aboriginal narratives more evident are being enacted across the University.

#### **Language Visibility and the University's Built Environment: The Wingara Mura—Bunga Barrabugu Design Principles**

As stated, the preservation of information through oral transmission has been shown to be an incredibly reliable means of teaching (e.g. Brown, 2013; Fernández-Llamazares & Cabeza, 2018; Walsh, 2016). That culture, knowledge, law and language are inseparable, highlights the necessity of making the surviving components (words and linguistic notations) of the Gadigal language visible, reinforced and spoken. Making visible and explicitly integrating the language into future landscape design is a way of reinforcing and rearticulating the language derived from Gadigal Country. The University has design principles as part of its greater cultural competence strategy, offered through Indigenous Strategy and Services (The University of Sydney, 2012). The phrase *Wingara mura*—*bunga barrabugu*, meaning "thinking path to make tomorrow", was used to inform the University's design principles (The University of Sydney, 2016b) which are:


We offer the following case studies as examples of how the *Wingara mura*—*bunga barrabugu* design principles have been enacted.

#### *Case Study 1: The University's Campus Flora Project: Plants and the Sydney Language*

The Campus Flora app is a technology-enabled mobile-learning (m-learning) strategy, encompassing our campuses and outdoor learning spaces for botany and ecology, throughout the life science curriculum. The app maps the plants and plant trails on University of Sydney campuses and includes image galleries for each species, along with botanical, ecological and ethnobotanical information. The first Campus Flora app was designed as a tool to support the development of the botanical literacy of biology students (Pettit, Pye, Wang, & Quinnell, 2014a, 2014b), and as a way to place the Sydney Language back into the campus landscape.

The Campus Flora app offers locations and information for each tree on our campuses. The app supports the narratives offered by "western science", contextualises the evolutionary timelines and offers the botanical descriptions of plants, together with images to make sense of the botanical terms used in those descriptions. The Patyegarang trail, a walking trail, connects users with the language of the traditional custodians. The Campus Flora project has drawn together academics, undergraduates and professional staff from across the University, including the Sydney University Museums and the disciplines of Botany and Engineering, into a common space to co-create ecological, botanical and cultural narratives, using the plants as waypoints for the trails. These trails are shared with all members of our community and visitors to our campus (Dimon et al., 2019). The Campus Flora project has lent itself to address environmental, botanical and digital literacies, as well as offering a means to talk about cultural competence.

In 2010, the Australian Academy of Science defined the future "big challenges" for Australia as being health and well-being, infrastructure, energy, water, sustainable agriculture, climate change and preservation of biodiversity. Just as improving botanical literacy is critical for our biology students to prepare them to address the big challenges in ecology, making the Sydney Language visible to all students who study on our Sydney campuses provides an access point to connect with Indigenous narratives and knowledges, starting with language. Introducing science students to the language of both "western science" and the Sydney Language deepens their understanding of how the plants and landscape respond to the seasonal changes of our region. The four seasons of the northern hemisphere sit uncomfortably on our southern continent where seven or more seasons are evident in Indigenous weather knowledges (Australian Bureau of Meteorology, 2014). Observations of how the patterns in the landscape change with the seasons are common to both IKs and biology.

English (and western) scientific names—mostly in Greek and Latin—were the first languages offered in the Campus Flora app. The work of Troy (1994) was used to develop the Patyegarang Sydney Language Trail, and this was supported by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services and Campus Infrastructure Services. The information offered with the trail includes distance (1.3 km), estimated time to walk the trial (~35 min), the Gadigal names and the following:

Patyegarang was an Aboriginal woman of the Gadigal nation. She shared her culture with Sydney colonists c.1780 and was one of the first teachers of Aboriginal language. This trail honours Patyegarang's generosity and offers the traditional language of this place. *Banksia integrifolia*— *courriddjah; Leptospermum* (tea-tree)—*bunya; Melaleuca sp.* (paperbark)—*gurrundurrung*; *Casuarina glauca*—*guman; Eucalyptus* (eucalypt)—*yarra*; *Acacia* (wattle)—*wadanguli*; *Syzygium paniculatum* (brush cherry)—*daguba*; *Livistona australis* (cabbage tree palm)—*daranggara*; *Ficus rubiginosa* (Port Jackson fig)—*damun*; *Syzygium smithii* (lilly pilly)—*midjuburi*; *Xanthorrhea* (grass tree)—*gulgadya*.

In addition to the Sydney Language, the Campus Flora app now offers the names of the plants whose native distribution is China in Chinese (both Chinese characters and pinyin). To date, the languages offered in Campus Flora are the Sydney Language (offered as the Patyegarang trail), English and Chinese. In this way, we offer a process where science and other knowledge systems can occupy a shared space. To honour Patyegarang, we have offered as much of the Sydney Language as we possibly can using the plants as waypoints for a trail. A screenshot of the Patyegarang trail is offered (see Fig. 12.2) with *guman* (*Casuarina glauca*) highlighted. The legacy left by Patyegarang in the historical documents is a great springboard for language revival.

In essence, the Sydney Language trail is a contemporary rendering of Patyegarang's conversations with Dawes and Patyegarang's gift of the Sydney Language to Dawes. With the Campus Flora app, plants—either in real time or virtually bring the Sydney Language back to the place of its origins, back to the place where it first came into being. With continued engagement, the Campus Flora app becomes a portal through which people can contribute to community narratives. This notion of plants being integral to cultural and community narratives resonates with the belief that:

living things, be they mammals, birds, reptiles, insects or trees are our sisters and brothers and therefore we must protect them. We are their custodians. We not only share with them, we also guard them (Oodgeroo, cited Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003, p. 209)

The groundwork of bringing the Sydney Language into sharp relief via the Campus Flora app presents a means to honour the knowledges of the Gadigal people on

the campus grounds and, for the University Museums' collections, a way to imbue the museum spaces with these knowledges, through language. In offering Campus Flora outside of the strictures of a learning management system, the entire University community can use the Patyegarang trail to find, see and touch plant species that have been known to the Gadigal people for generations, and to speak their Aboriginal names. Offering an Indigenous language in a physical context, specifically through place-based learning, deepens the experience of engaging with Indigenous languages and with Indigenous Australian history, enabling a legitimate pedagogic segue between botanical narratives and an Indigenous Australian historical narrative.

#### *Case Study 2. Sydney University Museums Natural and Cultural History Collection*

The Macleay Museum began with a bequest of natural history and Indigenous cultural material to the University of Sydney in 1891. These natural and cultural collections came from theMacleay family and include material collected from the 1790s, donated for the use of the University community. In 2003, the Macleay Museum became part of Sydney University Museums, encompassing the Nicholson and Art collections, and in 2020, these three University institutions will form the Chau Chak Wing Museum within a purpose-built building on the site of the old "kangaroo ground". The transformation from a nineteenth-century museum that was primarily natural history-focused into a twenty-first-century interdisciplinary museum is charged with representing not only its own particularly unique history, but also the history of the First Nations peoples' collections. Museums have played a larger role than most in constructing unethical versions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island past. The challenge for twenty-first-century museums in Australia today is in designing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island exhibitions that prioritise Indigenous values in the locality of the museum, for example in the urbanised landscape of Sydney (Poll et al., 2018; Simpson, 2009), and that ensure cultural safety for all community members.

While the plantings around the new museum will be included in the Campus Flora app, inside the Chau Chak Wing Museum we have the opportunity to offer a large number of regional languages connected with physical objects and artefacts. Through the Museum exhibitions, we hope our audiences will come to learn geographies of "Country"; and the differences and sounds of, for example, Wiradjuri, Yolŋu, Guugu Yimithirr and the Sydney Language. However, this is not just a tool for teaching about these languages, although reconnecting the language of the objectmakers and custodians with the object itself is powerful. It can also be a way for language to become part of the process of curation, a process whereby museums can ethically embrace the plethora of Indigenous languages and processes, aligned with the Australian Museums and Galleries Association "roadmap" (2017) for enhancing Indigenous engagement with museums and galleries.

With respect to natural history specimens, we can explore broad differences between Aboriginal taxonomies and the binomial classificatory system embraced worldwide. Aboriginal Australia's rich linguistic heritage makes this complicated: What language to use? In exhibitions within the Macleay Museum, we used the Sydney Language, reasoning that the objects and animals were being viewed here in Gadigal Country. We hope, with the active participation of language speakers, to expand upon this and slowly build up identifications for animals and objects in the language of their origin. Thus, a specimen of an eastern grey kangaroo (*Macropus giganteus*) acquired in far north Queensland will also be labelled "*gangaruu*", while the same animal collected in Sydney will be "*badagarang*". This should also allow people to use their own language to find things in the collection through the online search. In making the pertinent information about collections relevant to community needs, in regard to exercising sovereignty, Indigenous control of the representation of Indigenous culture can be realised.

The collection of native Australian wildlife specimens that today sit as taxidermy objects in museums across the world relied heavily on the Aboriginal knowledges of seasonal abundance, and the types of local knowledges that can only come from tens of generations of teaching and learning. First Nations intellectual properties exist in all sorts of non-object-based collections. The simple act of naming a species of plant or animal in the language of the people who knew it intimately for millennia is a small step towards decolonising the ways that the English language has colonised our reading of our natural environment. The ability to further increase the networking collections, objects and information from specific Indigenous nations and their associated language regions, that are held across multiple institutions, affords a new level of accessibility and control that can be exercised over these displaced and dislocated fragments of cultural histories.

It is in using Indigenous languages to name the Indigenous objects in the language of their makers and custodians that the University of Sydney can clearly demonstrate its commitment to reconciliation and providing a space for Sydney's Aboriginal communities to assert a sense of autonomy over how their culture is displayed in the public arena. In some exhibitions, the authentic and ethical use of language will include an added layer of security, in that aspects will only be readable by language speakers; and this in itself presents an opportunity for a demonstration of self-determination in relation to museum collections. Over time, the related Haswell zoological teaching collection at the University's School of Life and Environmental Sciences will also connect Indigenous languages to the teaching specimens in a way that is a working partnership with students (Quinnell et al., 2018). Ultimately, this strategy is a continuation of place naming, bringing the idea into the Chau Chak Wing Museum building and our teaching.

Embedding Indigenous language and knowledges into the ways that native species have been exhibited, labelled and taught in the Sydney University Museum's education programme has been a long-term project of the Macleay Museum, used in the permanent exhibitions. In 2014 and 2015, two exhibitions explored new ways of changing our focus from a Scottish family collection, to a collection drawn from Aboriginal knowledge systems into a University education system:


One of the more participatory and engaged methods of starting the process of honouring IKs will be by extending the success of the Campus Flora project and implementing Indigenous landscape design surrounding the new Chau Chak Wing Museum building. The groundwork evident in the Campus Flora app development offers ways to embed the knowledge of the Gadigal people, and to imbue the museum spaces with this knowledge in ways that have the potential to engage the community at large. Landscape design that does not resonate with the traditional knowledges and offer inclusive narratives is not an option. Rather, we, the authors, are taking this opportunity to use the plants in the landscape around the new museum to connect the community to Indigenous languages, the scholarship of language reconstruction and the curriculum. In doing so, we will be extending the learning spaces for education programmes to include the whole university campus (Cheung, Wardle, & Quinnell, 2015). Landscaping for the University's new Chau Chak Wing Museum prioritises plants that will be used in the museum's education programmes. These plants and information on their education importance will be integrated into the Campus Flora app post-construction.

<sup>5</sup>The significance and importance of the Wiradjuri cultural revival projects in New South Wales, including the *Dhaga Ngiyahni Ngan.Girra* exhibition, cannot be underestimated. A pivotal moment in Australian history occurred on 7 September 2016 as Wiradjuri leader Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Lower House of the Australian Parliament. Linda wore a Kangaroo skin cloak made by Lynette Riley depicting her ancestors' journey as well as Linda's own contemporary experience. Lynette Riley sang in Wiradjuri language as Linda gave her maiden speech, demonstrating the evocative power of our Indigenous languages as assertions of modern Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural identity.

In exploring the different layers of information embedded in the plant species that are being built into the campus landscaping plans for the new museum, it becomes apparent that particular plant species from the Sydney region are becoming conduits between Aboriginal knowledge systems and philosophies. The environment stimulates human behaviour to elicit a deep appreciation of the cultural histories embedded in and represented by the campus flora.

#### *Case Study 3: The Built Environment*

The University's grounds continue to change, which offers new opportunities to convey meaning through Indigenous narrative. A powerful demonstration of language reclamation and revitalisation is demonstrated on the façade of the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building on the University's Camperdown campus. The work, *GARABARA*, by Yawuru (Western Kimberley) artist Robert Andrew, is an embodiment of the consultative and collaborative approach that this type of work requires (see Fig. 12.3). Gadigal Elders, the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, University Indigenous staff and the Campus Infrastructure Services navigated a respectful integration of the final work into the built environment. The artist captured this well in his description of his process in researching and making the work:

Corroboree (ca-rib-ber-re), Garabara, Korobra has its origins in the local indigenous language of the Sydney area. The word Garabara and all its known and unknown meanings look at

**Fig. 12.3** Robert Andrew's work, GARABARA, installed at the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building (*Photo credit* R. Quinnell ©The University of Sydney)

knowledge that is continually accessed, uncovered, enacted/re-enacted, read and interpreted, often displaced and replaced, always moving and always growing (Andrews, from Stephen, 2018)

#### **Concluding Remarks**

The sharing of knowledge has been a continuing tradition on the lands upon which the University of Sydney is built and where students and teachers have assembled for many thousands of years. The initiatives described above have enabled the extension of available learning spaces to the whole University campus, to be used for education programmes (Quinnell, 2015). All members of our campus community have available to them the means of being on Gadigal land and reconnecting the Aboriginal names of plants from Sydney with the plants themselves. This is a physical embodiment of cultural competence, and it now extends from the landscape to the built environment. A better and deeper understanding of Indigenous languages, and the names and the taxonomies and all the plant and species names, has been absorbed across the Chau Chak Wing Museum. The International Year of Indigenous Languages began 1 January 2019 and offers an important international focus and a means to engage with and honour Australia's Indigenous cultures. Adopting approaches where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members of a campus community can be part of the process of language revitalisation is proving to be a powerful strategy for enacting cultural change.

#### **References**


Walsh, M., Marmion, D., & Troy, J. (2014). Re-awakening Australian languages: Economic, educational, health and social benefits to the community. In P. Heinrich & N. Ostler (Eds.), *Indigenous languages: Value to the community* (pp. 107–112). Foundation for Endangered Languages: Japan. Walsh, M. (2016). Ten postulates concerning narrative in Aboriginal Australia. *Narrative Inquiry, 26*(2), 193–216.

**Rosanne Quinnell** is an Associate Professor in Biology who also conducts research in education. She is interested in how students learn science and how best to use e- and m-innovations and interventions in the science curriculum. She has adopted a "students as partners" approach in a number of projects.

**Jakelyn Troy** is Ngarigu of the Snowy Mountains, south-eastern Australia. She is Director, Indigenous Research, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney. She is a linguistic anthropologist specialising in the Aboriginal languages of southeastern Australia and is known for her work in supporting the renewal and maintenance of these highly endangered languages. Her work in reconstructing, from historical sources, the Aboriginal language of the Sydney region has contributed to its renewed vibrancy amongst its community.

**Matthew Poll** is an assistant curator with the Chau Chak Wing Museum Indigenous Heritage collections as well as the University of Sydney Repatriation Project Officer. Matt works predominantly across contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait community arts development projects that create empowered futures for living communities.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Chapter 13 Students and Academics Working in Partnership to Embed Cultural Competence as a Graduate Quality**

**Amani Bell, Stephanie Barahona, Gulnaz Beg, Susan Coulson, Roman Eymont, Jodie Hartman, Tom Hubble, Natalie Leung, Michael A. McDonnell, Jiaru Ni, Tai Peseta, Ehssan Sakhaee, and Jonnell Uptin**

#### **Introduction**

Since 2014, the University of Sydney has been experimenting with a new initiative motivated by the research on "students as partners". In 2014, six students were selected as Ambassadors of the Sydney Teaching Colloquium (STC)—the University's annual learning and teaching conference—as undergraduate researchers. In that year, the focus was on assessment standards. In 2015, another six Student

S. Barahona Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

G. Beg

Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

S. Coulson · J. Ni Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

R. Eymont Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

T. Hubble Engineering and Environmental Geology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

N. Leung International and Global Studies, Sydney, NSW, Australia

#### M. A. McDonnell

Early American History, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

T. Peseta Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

E. Sakhaee School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

© The Author(s) 2020 J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_13

A. Bell (B) · J. Hartman · J. Uptin

Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: Amani.Bell@sydney.edu.au

Ambassadors were again involved, this time focused on cultural competence for curriculum renewal. The Ambassadors supported the programme planning, engaged with the student community via social media, presented their experiences of learning and situated them within scholarly literature, and devised and executed the STC's evaluation strategy—collecting data, and interviewing presenters and participants according to a set of criteria developed by the students. The 2014 Ambassadors were co-authors of an article published in 2016 in the *International Journal for Academic Development*'s special issue on "Engaging students as partners" (Peseta et al., 2016). Through this process, they learned about academic publication and peer review. The 2015 Ambassadors followed suit and have published an article in the online journal *Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education* (Bell et al., 2017). A highlight in 2015 was the presentation by the Student Ambassadors about cultural competence (The University of Sydney, 2015). The STC feedback showed that this was considered to be the session that most changed university teachers' thinking about cultural competence.

Through the initiative discussed in this chapter, we aimed to extend the Student Ambassador initiative beyond the Teaching Colloquium to better support the University's ambitious programme of curriculum renewal in the area of cultural competence. The University's strategic imperatives lend support for the initiative. The University has launched a renewed education strategy, as part of its overall strategic plan, which has flagged cultural competence as a new quality of the Sydney graduate (The University of Sydney, 2016). It is one of the key curriculum initiatives introduced in the strategic plan:

In collaboration with the National Centre for Cultural Competence and through a shared commitment to a more collective, relational model for learning and teaching, we will embed the development of cultural competence in the curriculum. We will also ensure broad student access to the University's rich cultural and language offerings, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and languages, and develop culturally rich experiential learning opportunities in conjunction with community and industry organisations in Australia and overseas. (The University of Sydney, 2016, p. 36)

The plan states that cultural competence will be embedded as a learning outcome in every degree, via "meaningful learning activities" including "access to study of culture and languages", mobility programmes, and "short, modular courses building cultural competence" (The University of Sydney, 2016, p. 58). The strategic plan acknowledges the importance of everyone in the University community being culturally competent, staff as well as students:

Our academic staff should participate effectively in intercultural settings in research, in the classroom, and in the day-to-day life of the University. They should be open to a diversity of ways of being, doing and knowing, as well as looking for, and understanding, the context of those engaged in, or affected by, our research and education. (The University of Sydney, 2016, p. 13)

The University's inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, languages and knowledges in its cultural competence strategies distinguishes this initiative from more general views of cultural competence that focus on "understand[ing] and appreciate[ing] cultural differences and similarities within and between groups and individuals" (Porta & Last, 2018). It commits the University to a view of cultural competence that attends to the legacy of racism and historical disadvantage that has plagued the treatment of Australia's Indigenous communities, which approach is in line with initiatives underway at other Australian universities and internationally. In the section below on cultural competence in higher education, we expand on and outline some of the challenges faced by such initiatives and follow this with a review of the literature on students as partners. These two areas of scholarship and practice have informed our work and are drawn together in a discussion of decolonising the curriculum.

#### **Cultural Competence in Higher Education**

There has been an increasing focus on cultural competence in higher education due to a range of factors. The focus reflects increasing awareness of the societal benefits of cultural competence (de Guzman, Durden, Taylor, Guzman, & Potthoff, 2016), of the need for greater diversity on boards (Groutsis, Cooper, & Whitwell, 2018), that graduates will likely work in diverse teams serving diverse communities (Monash University, 2012), and responses to the increasing diversity of student cohorts and calls to decolonise higher education. The turn to cultural competence in higher education is also a response to the polarisation of attitudes towards race, gender and religion that have characterised the Trump and Brexit eras (Kruse, Rakha, & Calderone, 2018).

In Australia—and elsewhere, such as the USA—the large numbers of international students, predominantly from China and India in recent years: "rather than increasing the diversity on campus … enabled the creation of ethnic enclaves and increased segregation of the student body" (Fraiberg, Wang, & You, 2017, p. 37). In some classes, lecturers encounter an "unexpected minority" of local students where "inverted classroom dynamics [are] linked to new arrangements of culture and power … destabilising classroom orientations and social norms" (Fraiberg et al., 2017, pp. 42, 49). Such classroom and campus dynamics can be challenging for both teachers and students and are not always explicitly addressed.

Cultural competence may also encompass teaching Indigenous Knowledges (IKs). In Australia and other countries that have been subjected to colonisation, there have been calls (in some cases very strongly made, via protests), for IKs to be incorporated into the curriculum (Rochecouste et al., 2017). Universities Australia (UA) argues that: "all graduates of Australian universities should be culturally competent" (2011, p. 8), and the definition it uses focuses on Indigenous cultures and knowledges:

Student and staff knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Australian cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of Indigenous protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in Indigenous contexts congruent to the expectations of Indigenous Australian peoples. (UA, 2011, p. 6)

In Australia, initiatives to achieve this goal are underway, and a common approach is Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators partnering with Indigenous Elders, to embed "Aboriginal Knowledges and perspectives" into the curriculum (Charles Sturt University, 2019; University of Wollongong, 2019). While these moves are laudable, such efforts are not easy because universities are embedded in, and have contributed to, structures that reinforce social inequalities. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, face ongoing problems with access to, and retention at, university (Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012, Harwood, Hickey-Moody, McMahon, & O'Shea, 2017). Australia's Indigenous people are "still marginalised", still "positioned as the other" (Buckskin, 2013), and racism is still encountered by both Indigenous students and Indigenous educators within Australia's educational systems (Corr, 2016). It is important to reflect on these historical and ongoing issues in order to understand the enormity of the task faced by cultural competence practitioners. In short, we are asking one concept—cultural competence—to do a lot of work. In the following section, we provide an overview of the literature on "students as partners" as a key concept which has informed our cultural competence work.

#### **Students as Partners**

The concept of students and staff working in partnership to examine and change higher education has gained momentum in the past decade. Initiatives in the UK (Healey, Flint, & Harrington, 2014), the USA (Cook-Sather, 2011) and more recently in Australia (Matthews, 2016) have highlighted the ways in which such partnerships have benefits, as well as challenges, for all involved.

At our institution, there have been several small-scale students as partners initiatives (Atkinson 2017; Bell et al., 2019), and we have noted the interest of many staff in working more closely with students. For example, when we asked participants to write (on a post-it note, for display) what they were most hoping to gain from the 2015 STC, some comments were:


While there are many ways that students and staff have worked productively together to enhance higher education, here we focus on students as partners in curriculum design. Bovill and Bulley (2011) developed a ladder of student participation in curriculum design (Fig. 13.1), inspired by Arnstein's ladder of citizen

**Fig. 13.1** Bovill and Bulley's (2011) ladder of student participation in curriculum design

participation in planning (Arnstein, 1969), with the aim of: "stimulat[ing] discussion of some of the levels and types of student participation that might be possible and desirable. New or alternative rungs of the ladder might be proposed by others" (Bovill & Bulley, 2011, p. 5).

The ladder is useful in thinking about the various ways students and staff might work together to change the curriculum. Another way of thinking about students as partners for curriculum design is around the different types of curriculum cocreation. Cook-Sather, Matthews, and Bell (2019) provide examples of the range of ways students and staff have worked in partnership for curriculum design, including: collaborating on course design as a course is unfolding; re-designing in the semester before teaching it again; deconstructing the hidden curriculum; ...influencing courses and university-wide curriculum renewal; partnering with students in a whole-of-degree programme curriculum review; and co-creating an institution-wide, pedagogical partnership programme (Cook-Sather et al.)

The benefits of working in partnership with students on curriculum design include ending up with a course that is more likely to meet the needs of students (Shore, 2012), improving the student experience and making a course more inclusive (Brunson, 2018), immediate changes to a course (Bell et al., 2013), changes to thinking about the curriculum for both staff and students (Bell et al., 2017; Peseta et al., 2016), making learning activities and assessments more relevant to students' lives (Bunnell & Bernstein, 2014), and developing more culturally responsive classrooms (Cook-Sather & Des-Ogugua, 2018). The student partners involved in such initiatives also report benefits, such as feeling more invested in their education and taking responsibility for their learning (Charkoudian, Bitners, Bloch, & Nawal, 2015), and acquiring knowledge and terminology about the curriculum while also gaining a sense of agency to shape curriculum review (Matthews, 2018).

Cook-Sather et al. (2019) contend that: "expanding curriculum design and redesign to include partnerships amongst students, academic and professional staff, and academic developers fosters radically and productively disruptive co-creation; it upends traditional and normative notions of hierarchy and power within curriculum development in higher education." This radical disruption of the curriculum design process and institutional hierarchies has parallels with the concept of decolonising the curriculum which, as we argue in the next section, is a useful lens through which to integrate the literature around cultural competence and students as partners.

#### **Decolonising the Curriculum: Bringing Cultural Competence and Students as Partners Together**

The two concepts of students as partners and cultural competence unsettle longentrenched hierarchies and the privileging of certain knowledges in higher education. The key values of students as partners—that students have the right to be involved in shaping their education and have valuable perspectives to contribute—and of cultural competence—that we need to attend to our own and others' cultural worldviews have parallels with the concept of decolonising the curriculum. Ryan and Tilbury argue that "actively involving students in learning development and processes of cocreation, thereby challenging existing learning relationships and power frames, and deconstructing dominant pedagogical frames that promote only western worldviews are important new pedagogical approaches" (2013, p. 7).

The decolonising higher education movements around the world (although they are particularly strong in South Africa and the UK) are often driven by students, in some cases in partnership with staff. Movements such as "Why is my curriculum white?" (Hussain, 2015), "Rhodes must fall" (Mbembe, 2016) and "Fees must fall" (Hauser, 2016), all involved students who feel that the higher education sector disenfranchises certain groups and knowledges. Black students in South Africa have proclaimed *"*we must exorcise the colonial ghost from the curriculum*"* (Luckett, 2016, p. 416), and it is increasingly being acknowledged that "curriculum frames knowledges in particular ways. Some frames are visible, while others are not" (Anwaruddin, 2016, p. 433).

It has been noticed by many academics and students that certain knowledges are absent or marginalised in the curriculum, including those of first-generation and low-income students (Jehangir, 2010), women (Coate, 2006), people of colour (Walcott, 2018) and Indigenous people (Nakata, 2007). And where such perspectives are included in the curriculum, there can tend to be a deficit approach—for example, discussing only problems around Indigenous Australians, rather than their diversity and their strengths—the "discourse of deficiency" (Gorringe, 2015). The results of the erasure or marginalisation of these knowledges are that some students (and staff) may feel disconnected from the curriculum; and our graduates risk emerging illequipped to understand both structural injustices and the richness of a myriad of knowledge systems and worldviews. On a positive note, "curriculum makes space like nothing else I know in education. It can be a mighty tool of social justice for the marginalised" (Kovach, 2010, p. 6). Below, we provide details about our initiative, in which students and staff worked in partnership to make some space for cultural competence, in five units of study.

#### **The Initiative**

#### *The Team*

The team consisted of two project leaders (both academic developers), five academics (unit coordinators) and five students, together with a Student Ambassador from the previous year who initially acted as a mentor to the new student partners, and then later joined the History team. The five individual projects were in the disciplines of Project Management, Education, Physiotherapy, History and Geology. The student partners received payment for the time they spent on the initiative, in recognition of the significant time commitment that would take them away from other paid work.

The five academics were people who we (the academic developers) knew were already interested in and/or working with cultural competence as a graduate quality. The students, chosen via an "expression of interest" and interview process, were selected because they were enthusiastic about being involved and demonstrated sophisticated ideas about cultural competence, and often had deep personal connections to cultural competence. This is illustrated below via extracts from student partners' expression of interest forms:


#### *How We Worked Together*

The project leaders drew on Williams' concept, "Teach the University" (Williams, 2008), to support the student and staff partners in developing their understanding of the project. Williams argues that "study of the university enjoins students [and, we argue, staff] to consider reflexively the ways and means of the world they are in, and what it does to and for them" (Williams, 2008, p. 26). The students and unit coordinators met individually, and we also had four meetings as a whole group, as follows.


During these whole group meetings, we developed our shared (and differentiated) understandings of the work, discussed the difficulties of finding genuine ways of embedding cultural competence rather than "tick a box/bolt on" and shared resources, ideas and readings. Some of the readings we drew on were Arao and Clemens (2013), Zúñiga, Zúñiga, Nagda, Chesler, and Cytron-Walker (2007) and Virdun et al. (2013).

The projects were evaluated in different ways (e.g. focus groups, surveys, interviews). We also evaluated the overall initiative in several ways, drawing on "critical friend" feedback from international students as partners expert; reflective writing by each person at the end of the project; and a project report by each student (with input from the unit coordinators).

#### **The Five Projects and Their Outcomes**

#### *Education*

The academic partner was Dr. Jonnell Uptin, and the student partner was Jodie Hartman. Jonnell and Jodie worked on the activities and assignments in the secondyear unit for pre-service primary level teachers, "Intercultural Understanding in Human Society and its Environment". Based on her experiences of the unit in 2015, Jodie provided detailed feedback and ideas to Jonnell, mainly around helping students realise that culture goes beyond religion and ethnicity, to encompass an awareness of self-identity and worldviews. Jonnell made several changes to the unit including adding an activity, which was imparted to Jonnell from Elders in the Yuin community, where each student brought in and discussed an object that was culturally meaningful to them. Over the course of the unit, students were encouraged to connect with their culture/s through tutorial activities—the idea being that once you understand yourself and your own culture/s, commonalities between cultures become apparent. The main assessment task required students to explore a culture unfamiliar to them and connect it to their own culture/s. The students' choices of cultures to study demonstrated views of culture beyond religion and ethnicity, for example vegan culture, hipster culture and prison culture. Jodie created a video based on interviews with students about their experiences of the assessment task (Hartman, 2016).

The project led to additional opportunities for Jodie, who was invited to be part of a student panel at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) conference in July 2017. Jodie was one of three students from across Australia presenting to the entire conference of around 400 academics. Following on from the HERDSA panel, Jodie was invited to be a student keynote speaker at the National Students as Partners Roundtable in Adelaide in October 2017.

#### *Project Management*

The following text below has been reproduced and adapted from a blog post by Ehssan and Roman (Eymont & Sakhaee, 2017). The academic partner was Dr Ehssan Sakhaee, and the student partner was Roman Eymont. Ehssan and Roman worked on the unit, "Project based on organisational behaviour". They first brainstormed a number of ways that they could achieve their goal of helping the 91 students undertaking the unit to become more culturally competent and decided to create and implement two new activities within the weekly tutorial sessions.

The first activity was run in week three. An anonymous survey was conducted in week two in which students were asked to answer a variety of questions (such as "What was your first language?" "What is your favourite sport?" and "Where were you born?") in order to obtain responses, and data for the activity being implemented. A trivia-based game was created using students' responses; an example of the question in the trivia game is "What is the Japanese word for empty orchestra?" (the answer being karaoke). The pedagogical rationale for the quiz was to create questions specific to certain members of the class, and unless other students had extensive knowledge of different cultures or could guess correctly, then the most diverse group would be able to obtain maximum points and end up winning the quiz. Students were asked to form their groups of five to six people within the classroom, and Roman and the practising tutor conducted the trivia quiz. Students were not told that the most diverse team would win—the idea was that they would work this out for themselves through playing the games.

The second activity in week five involved a game where a piece of paper with eight different words (e.g. sun, house, plane) was arranged in a particular order to create a story and handed to different groups of students. These words were in different languages, and each group received a different version of the puzzle. The languages used were obtained from the data students had provided as part of the survey at the beginning of the semester, so that in each tutorial, only languages that were spoken by those students in the tutorial were used. Another sheet full of images associated with these words was also given to students. The students then needed to cut out these images and glue them onto the correct word on the sheet. The idea was for students to form their own culturally diverse groups in order to try and have enough members who spoke several languages, in order to solve the puzzle. After this, there was a riddle shown on screen where all the students in the class had to collaborate and find words on the back of their sheets to find the answer to the riddle, which required combining individual group answers to find the final complete story.

Students were then asked to go onto Blackboard (the learning management system) and fill in a short question specific to each week's tutorial. For the tutorials for weeks three and five, the question was "Please briefly describe in around 200 words your learnings and reflections for this week's lecture and tutorial". Feedback from students was positive and included the following:


The second problem emphasised team problem solving while promoting strength in diversity. Effective teamwork is key for project success. Future plans for the unit include providing more opportunities for students to understand and practise cultural competence. Ehssan has generously provided detailed guidelines on how to create the games, which are available online (Sakhaee, 2017, 2018).

#### *Geology*

The following text has been reproduced and adapted from a blog post by Gulnaz and Tom (Beg & Hubble, 2017). The academic partner was Associate Professor Tom Hubble, and the student partner was Gulnaz Beg. The "Introduction to Geology" unit is a first-year earth science subject which provides students with an overview of the study of geology. The approach taken was to subtly incorporate IKs about geology throughout lecture materials and excursions, in a way that would be engaging for students. The project ran for one semester, and the team regularly sought the opinions of students enrolled in the advanced stream of the unit during the semester. The subtle changes introduced as part of the project included a combination of adding material to lectures taught by Tom (who included an Acknowledgement of Country in the first lecture, and referenced Indigenous views and knowledge about landscape, past environments, and extinct fauna); and modifying the activities undertaken during a day-long field trip to the Blue Mountains, to highlight the similarities and differences between the way Traditional Owners and geologists read and interpret the landscape. A student commented:

• "I think there was one lecture where Tom was sharing an Aboriginal painting and how it was similar to contour lines on a map. I think that was a really interesting way to bring in cultural competence within the unit".

The student partner Gulnaz was introduced to the advanced class in week three and outlined the timeline of the project and how it would be implemented throughout the semester. Surveys were distributed to the advanced students at the conclusion of the study. In week 13 of semester 1, Gulnaz facilitated a focus group discussion about successful outcomes and suggestions for improvement.

The survey aimed to gain a greater understanding of students' perceptions of the importance and relevance of cultural competence within academic and corporate environments. A total of 10 out of 15 students answered all questions within the survey, with 100% of students agreeing with the statements:


Students had mixed responses about whether they thought the incorporation of cultural competence was appropriate within the unit; for example:


Aspects that the team will investigate in future semesters include creating something similar to the trivia game developed by Ehssan and Roman in project management (see above). Another suggestion would be to have a greater Indigenous voice within the course such as having Indigenous guest speakers or incorporating Dreaming stories to complement European methodologies—this was also suggested by some of the students in the focus group. The approach did not focus on communication skills and intercultural communication, and this is another possible area of focus in the future.

#### *History*

The following text has been reproduced and adapted from a blog post by Natalie, Stephanie and Michael (Leung, Barahona & McDonnell, 2017). Professor Michael McDonnell was the academic partner, and Natalie Leung and Stephanie Barahona were the student partners. As a partnership of two students and an academic, they wanted to measure students' understanding and experience of cultural competence, and whether this might change through the course of a unique community-engaged public history capstone unit in the Department of History, "History Beyond the Classroom". The unit is a rare example of a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences subject that involves community engagement as a core part of its design.

The unit requires students to frame, research and produce an original project based on an engagement with communities and organisations outside the university. Students spend approximately 10 h getting to know their chosen community or local organisation by contributing to or assisting in their work. They then collaboratively develop a major public history project that would be beneficial for the organisation. This public history project can take various forms, and past student projects have ranged from museum exhibits, walking tours, the recording of oral histories, website developments and many more (The University of Sydney, 2002–19).

The research involved participants from the semester 2, 2016 student cohort. It was the second time the unit has been offered, with approximately 30 students enrolled. Participation in this research was anonymous and voluntary, with ethical approval granted by the University of Sydney's Human Research Ethics Committee (Project Number 2016/735). Three methodologies were utilised: a survey, conducted at two points of the semester; two follow-up semi-structured interviews with students; and analysis of students' public blog posts.

Both the survey and interview results revealed that the participants possessed only vague understandings of the precise definition of "cultural competence":

• "I'm not really sure what [cultural competence] actually means … but I could probably tell you what isn't [culturally competent] and I could probably tell you the kinds of stuff it might look like".

However, they offered insightful responses about the necessity of cultural awareness and sensitivity, and readily identified aspects and experiences that had allowed them to become increasingly perceptive or conscious of different cultural modes of understanding. The data affirmed the team's view that the discipline of History already, and implicitly, has many aspects of cultural competence embedded within it.

The strongest theme across the three forms of data collection was the benefits of "real-world" community engagement to students' evolving understandings of cultural competencies and skills:

• "I mean, I think I saw that it's all good and all to talk about how we could be helpful or aware and, like, careful about how we approach people [when conducting historical research], but I didn't realise how real that was until I went out and did this community research".

While it can be said that the historical discipline fosters an awareness of perspective and difference, students' active involvement in community-based historical research in the unit is able to add new insights to these ideas. It asks students to be intimately involved in the creation of history and, in so doing, brings them into contact with its practice outside of the university setting.

The Humanities and Social Sciences are subject areas that are oriented around an exploration of peoples and how they have created social, cultural and political understandings of their world. In various faculties and disciplines, ideas and skills of cultural competence are not only implicitly conveyed through studies; they are, arguably, fundamental aspects of disciplines such as History, Sociology, Anthropology, and Government and International Relations. As the University enters a new phase of curriculum renewal and transformation, alongside its increasing focus on cultural competence, this invites questions and reflections on how these two aspects can be more explicitly aligned.

This preliminary and, admittedly, limited survey of "History Beyond the Classroom" students has indicated that the provision of real-world scenarios and research possesses a powerful ability to invite students' critical reflection on principles of cultural competence. Indeed, even in this small-scale research, it is apparent that cultural competence is both a theoretical and a highly practical notion—and, moreover, it is through practice that its complexities become fully apparent.

#### *Physiotherapy*

Dr. Susan Coulson was the academic partner, and Jiaru Ni was the student partner. In the third-year undergraduate unit "Physiotherapy in Multisystem Problems", Jiaru and Susan conducted pre- and post-surveys of students' understandings of cultural competence before and after receiving lecture and tutorial content that focused on cultural competence for clinical practitioners. The aims were to understand students' own perceptions about their cultural competence and, through teaching and encouraging self-reflective practice, to facilitate students to become more culturally competent pre-service practitioners.

Jiaru interviewed about 20 students a few days after their clinical placements and asked about their experiences related to cultural competence that they had encountered during their placement. Jiaru created a number of short video vignettes showing students discussing the situations they encountered during clinical placement when they treated someone from a culture that was different from their own. These videos were used in tutorial classroom situations to generate discussion among other students around such issues as negotiations around communication regarding gender and language differences, or professional examination of musculoskeletal disorders which may have required specific exposure of certain parts of the body. This facilitated further discussion and self-reflection on how students' perceptions of cultural competence changed after completing their clinical placements.

The survey showed that the students developed a more comprehensive understanding of cultural competence and were ready to apply clinical skills with considerations of patients' cultural backgrounds. There were significant changes in students' self-reported confidence, in their knowledge about what it means to be culturally competent and to provide effective verbal and non-verbal communication across a range of cultures. A significant improvement was also found in their awareness of the similarities and differences among and between various different cultural groups.

When reflecting on what cultural competence meant to them, student responses included:


Physiotherapy students reported that they were already practising with some level of cultural competence during the clinical placement, even before the lecture and tutorial content. The students have been consistently educated on how to practise in a culturally competent way throughout their years of learning, which has impacted their style of practising during the clinical placement.

#### **Reflections on the Overall Initiative**

All team members were asked to reflect in writing and aloud at our final project meeting. The benefits reported by students and staff partners are similar to those reported in other studies about curriculum co-creation (Lubicz-Nawrocka, 2017). The student partners enjoyed: "the students' willingness to learn and participate in class". They gained "interpersonal interaction, interview skills, ability to make a survey, analysis of the data, presentation skills and lastly, but not least understanding of cultural competence". They also gained insight into "the specific ways the university is undertaking to promote cultural competence", and "a new found confidence to part of a discussion with and work alongside academics".

In addition, the student partners gained skills in cultural competence that they saw would be useful in their careers:


The academics gained "a deeper insight into what is working and not working [in the unit]". The academics commented that they would continue to embed cultural competence in their units. For example:

• "We will carry the same activities into the next iteration of the class and refine it in several ways (e.g. for the diversity trivia we aim to integrate other forms of diversity (age, gender). It helps students appreciate the value diversity brings in teams and apply it to their future teamwork both at the university and also in their future career". (Ehssan)

The different ways of perceiving cultural competence reveal disciplinary variations, for example viewing cultural competence as the ability to work as a diverse team (project management) through to embedding IKs (Geology). It could be seen as a strength of the initiative that everyone took such a different approach, although we feel there was perhaps a missed opportunity to broaden disciplinary perspectives of cultural competence through emphasising and discussing the interdisciplinary differences. It is not always easy to think beyond disciplinary silos and developing "epistemic fluency"—"the capacity to understand, switch between and combine different kinds of knowledge and different ways of knowing about the world" (Markauskaite & Goodyear, 2019)—is a complex endeavour for educators and students alike.

Further reflections on how the overall initiative might be improved include having more meetings, involving more disciplines and more effective promotion of the initiative, including promoting it across the University's different campuses. We had hoped to produce a range of resources that could be used as exemplars or conversationstarters by other academics and students. We made some progress towards this outcome, with presentations at various internal and external events, blog posts on the *Teaching@Sydney* blog and the videos produced by Ehssan and Jodie. Coming at a time of intense institutional change, the project fell in a period of "peak overwork" for academics, making it difficult to get everyone together for meetings. The individual project approach felt a bit less coherent than in previous years when we worked with student ambassadors for a particular event (the STC).

In our discussions about the initiative, with our critical friend Alison Cook-Sather, we talked about the importance of the process of teaching cultural competence, rather than just focusing on the content. Making space for students' reflections is a key aspect of the process, especially to allow them to acknowledge uncertainty. Educators need to think of questions to ask that invite analysis and reflection. Student agency is also important where possible, for example giving students a choice about readings or projects where they choose what they investigate (this was evident in the education and history projects). We also wondered about the possible resistance both to students as partners and to cultural competence—within our university. This resistance is complex, and we have empathy for staff who are facing many changes. Within the constraints of the neoliberal academy, how can staff find enough time to attend to cultural competence as a graduate quality, amid all the competing demands and other pressures on the curriculum?

Our five projects "measured" cultural competence in different ways: through surveys, interviews and focus groups. The university is moving towards the more formal measurement of its nine graduate qualities, including cultural competence, and "a description of each student's mastery of these so-called soft skills will be attached to their academic transcript from 2020" (Baker, 2018). This is a complex undertaking, and measurement and cultural competence are uneasy bedfellows. Areas for future research and practice include ongoing iterative studies; the mapping and embedding of cultural competence at the degree programme level; and understanding more about student, staff, disciplinary employer and societal perspectives of cultural competence.

#### **Recommendations**

In order to expand this small-scale initiative, we have two key recommendations. First, such work needs to be supported by an institutional ethos of cultural competence (and we acknowledge that the University is working towards this; see, for example, Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017). Cultural competence needs to be embedded throughout an institution's structures and practices, with leaders who support and model it. Both educators and students need support and time to develop their understandings of cultural competence.

Second, student-staff partnerships for curriculum design require time, funding, and institutional championship and commitment. In this case, we were fortunate to have internal funding in order to pay the student partners. An alternate model is to provide academic credit for student partners. Educators' time could be recognised via workload calculations, or payment in the case of sessional staff. Aligned to the first recommendation, institutions need to foster an ethos of partnership, where both staff and students feel welcome and equipped to participate in reimagining and reshaping their universities.

**Acknowledgements** This initiative was funded by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Portfolio and HERDSA's student-led curriculum transformation project scheme. We thank Melinda Lewis and Arlene Harvey for sharing ideas and resources at an early project meeting. We are grateful to Alison Cook-Sather for acting as a critical friend, and to the Office for Learning and Teaching-funded Transforming Practice Program for bringing a subset of our group together at the project planning stage.

#### **References**


**Amani Bell** is an Associate Professor of work integrated learning in the University of Sydney School of Health Sciences. Previously, she was an academic developer at The University of Sydney. Her research takes a participatory approach to exploring the challenges and opportunities of higher education.

**Stephanie Barahona** holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from The University of Sydney and has worked alongside Professor Michael McDonnell. She is currently completing her Honours degree in higher educational history. She has been a member of the student advisory council at the National Centre for Cultural Competence, University of Sydney, since October 2016.

**Gulnaz Beg** holds a Bachelor of Science from The University of Sydney and has worked closely with her lecturer Tom Hubble. Since graduating, Gulnaz has been working in an advisory role for a non-profit organisation, liaising with corporates to engage in cultural competence, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

**Susan Coulson** is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy at The University of Sydney. She teaches musculoskeletal studies, professional ethical practice and multidisciplinary health care to undergraduate and Master degree students. Cultural competence, as well as her clinical/research practice in the rehabilitation of facial nerve disorders, are integrated into her teaching.

**Roman Eymont** was an undergraduate student, working with one of his lecturers, Ehssan Sakhaee. He has since graduated with Honours from his civil engineering and project management course. He currently works in a construction firm which has a strong emphasis on promoting cultural competence and initiatives.

**Jodie Hartman** was a third-year student in the Bachelor of Education (Primary). She has been a student representative to the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney, and is passionate about the need for cultural competence in education.

**Tom Hubble** is an Associate Professor in Engineering and Environmental Geology at The University of Sydney, where he teaches introductory geology and rock engineering subjects to undergraduate and postgraduate students. He promoted cultural competence to students and colleagues of the Faculty of Science from 2013 to 2017.

**Natalie Leung** was in her fourth year of a Bachelor of International and Global Studies (Honours). She has a strong interest in widening participation in higher education and has mentored students in Higher School Certificate (HSC) Extension History.

**Michael A. McDonnell** is a Professor of Early American History at The University of Sydney and teaches a community-engaged public history unit of study called "History Beyond the Classroom." He is keen to embed cultural competence skills development in his teaching practice and think about the role of the discipline of history in fostering cultural competence.

**Jiaru Ni** was an undergraduate physiotherapy student who worked closely with Dr. Susan Coulson. Since graduation, he has become a clinical physiotherapist and works in a private hospital. As always, he hopes to help people to improve their quality of life.

**Tai Peseta** joined Western Sydney University as Senior Lecturer in the Learning Transformations Team, Learning Futures Portfolio in March 2017, following academic appointments at The University of Sydney, La Trobe University and The University of Melbourne. Her research interests include academic practice and labour, doctoral curriculum/research education, and Ideas of the University.

**Ehssan Sakhaee** is the Director, Learning and Teaching, in The University of Sydney's School of Civil Engineering. His research looks at the human factors that affect motivation, engagement and productivity in individuals, teams and organisations.

**Jonnell Uptin** is an academic in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney. Her research and teaching are concentrated on refugee youth, and teaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She is particularly interested in the role that intercultural understanding plays in assisting educators and schools.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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## **Chapter 14 Embedding Cultural Competence in Science Curricula**

**Rebecca Cross, Elisa Bone, Peter Ampt, Tina Bell, Rosanne Quinnell, and Jaime Gongora**

#### **Introduction**

Effectively incorporating cultural competence into tertiary institutions is paramount to the creation of cross-cultural settings where undergraduates and academics can develop understandings of how culture and belief systems influence professional decision making. Processes that incorporate cultural competence are viewed as particularly challenging in science disciplines, particularly non-vocational science disciplines where "western" or reductivist ways of teaching and "doing" science remain dominant. Transformative educational practices across science begin with including cultural competence in all academic pursuits, providing opportunities to foster acceptance of multiple evidence-based knowledge systems, and integrating cultural perspectives into the science curriculum. Of course, there are multiple ways to approach the challenge of bringing western science and cultural competence together, many of which involve practical activities that inspire new ways of thinking and doing.

Institutional context is important. In 2011, The University of Sydney adopted a new Indigenous Strategy. More recently, and in direct response to the Universities Australia (UA) guiding principles in the *Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities Best Practice Framework* (UA, 2011), cultural competence features in the University's 2016–2020 Strategic Plan (i.e. mission statement) as a university-wide graduate quality. Within the Faculty of Science, some schools

J. Gongora

School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

R. Cross (B) · P. Ampt · T. Bell · R. Quinnell

School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: Rebecca.Cross@sydney.edu.au

E. Bone

Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_14

(e.g. School of Life and Environmental Sciences [SOLES], and Sydney School of Veterinary Science [SSVS]) are implementing the Indigenous Strategy locally, with a goal of building teaching and learning environments that understand and value cultural competence, including the appreciation of Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems.

Initiatives to date within SOLES and SSVS include an Indigenous seminar series on cultural competence and Indigenous Knowledge (IKs); online modules and units of study within Sydney University's Open Learning Environment (OLE); inclusion of new content and curriculum scaffolding across certain units and the introduction of a cross-faculty unit of study. While positive progress has been made in the faculty, further embedding of cultural competence within science curricula will require ongoing mindfulness of potential challenges to faculty involvement and effective engagement with academics and students in schools, facilitating professional development opportunities for both academic and support staff, and liaising with appropriate external individuals and organisations that can contribute their expertise to the developing curriculum.

This chapter addresses why cultural competence is essential in tertiary science curricula, the process undertaken by the authors to integrate cultural competence into curricula, and reflections on the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) conference and insights from the conference workshop on this topic.

#### **What Is Cultural Competence and Why Is It Important in Science?**

Culture defines our sense of self, our sense of identity, our sense of community, our sense of time and place, and our personal and communal ontologies and epistemologies. Therefore, cultural competence refers to both an understanding of ourselves and others, and the myriad philosophies, values, beliefs and contexts through which all knowledge is produced, shared and interpreted (Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989). Culturally competent individuals have an increased awareness of and capacity not only to acknowledge but also to understand different worldviews, beliefs, customs and practices, and have evolved from an ethnocentric lens and reduced unconscious bias via a process of critical reflection and cultural self-assessment (Fitzgerald, 2001).

The purpose of cultural competence is to build a regenerating, multidimensional worldview with the aim to foster the capacity to imagine, create and collaborate across and within multicultural, transcultural and intercultural spaces. Building cultural competence can enable professionals to work effectively and sensitively in crosscultural contexts (Cross et al., 1989). Cross-cultural communication and acceptance of other worldviews is a skill that is often lacking among trained scientists who do research with Indigenous<sup>1</sup> communities and people but is fundamental to fostering constructive interactions. Therefore, a commitment to embedding cultural competence into science curricula reinforces the nation-wide challenge of actively addressing injustice, racism, exclusion, inequity and bias.

Embedding cultural competence into higher education begins to address longterm, historical social justice and environmental justice issues. It starts with acknowledging that mainstream science is derived largely from a white, western, maledominated tradition and that this tradition enabled exploration, invasion and colonialism. This resulted in consequent dominance over Indigenous people, societies, cultures, languages, knowledge and ultimately science. The science and technological innovation and invention that were not destroyed, were classified and trivialised by western scientists as "art" and "myth" (Battiste, 2002; Sepie, 2017). Historic "scientific" studies that were conducted on, about and with Indigenous people were most often exploitative, positioned science with power and dominance over IKs, and reinforced colonial control. An Indigenous Alaskan saying captures this impact: "researchers are like mosquitoes; they suck your blood and leave" (Cochran et al., 2008, p. 22). In some cases, Indigenous people have been the recipients of damaging and destructive experiments carried out in the name of science (e.g. nuclear testing in remote South Australia, see ABC, 2016).

Despite its dark history, the western scientific tradition has produced advances in technology, but current generations are keenly aware of the damage and destructive influence on nature that often follows "scientific" revolutions (e.g. the industrial and green revolutions). Shifting our focus to sustainability in science education requires focusing on Indigenous people's long-term sustainable relationship with the land and how this is underpinned by IKs and, as an integral part of that, science (Kimmerer, 2002). Doing this may provide valuable insight into the nature of human beings, how humans can live together with other species and with this planet in a renewable, regenerative way (Sepie, 2017). The Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2015, p. 103) defines "Indigenous and Local Knowledge" as:

A cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment …. [G]rounded in territory, Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) is a dynamic body of integrated, holistic, social-ecological knowledge, practices and beliefs…. ILK is often an assemblage of different types of knowledge (written, oral, tacit, practical, and scientific) that is empirically tested, applied and validated by local communities.

Although IKs are often scientific, and may be underpinned by analytical methods and positivist understandings (Alessa et al., 2016; Snively & Williams, 2016; Whyte, Brewer II, & Johnson, 2016), they differ from western science systems as they include holistic, intuitive and spiritual knowledge and do not differentiate between the secular

<sup>1</sup>While the authors acknowledge that cultural competence goes beyond a focus on Indigenous Knowledges (Abrams & Moio, 2009), this is the core focus of the University-wide strategy Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu.

and the sacred (Harmsworth & Awatere, 2013; Kimmerer, 2002; Mazzocchi, 2006; Nakashima & Roué, 2002). Unlike the mainstream western science curriculum, IKs are comprehensively integrated. Astronomy, biology, ecology and geography are taught and learned as sophisticated cultural narratives. Further, the practice of Indigenous science required the observer to be acknowledged as a participant in the process of scientific observation. Therefore, within IKs, not only are the "-ologies" integrated but the culture, laws and language of the people making observations are interdependent, interrelated and interlocked (Harmsworth & Awatere, 2013; McKinley, 2005).

As a result of these characteristics, IKs can complement mainstream science (e.g. in the fields of ethnobotany, ethnobiology, and ethnomedicine; see Berlin et al., 2014), provide contextual detail and richness that is excluded in much scientific methodology (e.g. local long-term trends and intimate understandings of local environmental processes and ecologies; see Butler, Tawake, Skewes, Tawake, & McGrath, 2012; Cross et al., 2017; Montanari, 2014; Pan et al., 2016) or provide valuable insight into phenomena that the natural sciences cannot explain due to their inherent limitations (e.g. exclusion of moral, personal, spiritual and cultural dimensions; see Bobo, Aghomo, & Ntumwel, 2015). Further, IKs connect the sciences to other disciplines and broaden the scope of what can be considered interdisciplinary. It is this holistic ontological and epistemological worldview that is key to enabling truly sustainable living (Sepie, 2017) and, if embedded into science curricula, offers a way forward to mend the fragmentation between peoples, between people and nature, and perhaps, between this world and the spirit world.

#### **Challenges with Implementing Cultural Competence**

The key underlying challenge that stymies true efforts to embed cultural competence into science curricula is that the underlying assumptions of the scientific tradition are unquestioned; as a consequence, IKs are largely not considered or disregarded (Thaman, 2003). The dominant system of knowledge in Australia is founded in colonial superiority and fosters an "ideology of knowledge that supports its own elite status [and] has assisted the exclusion and disqualification of innumerable 'subjugated knowledges'" (Foucault, 1980, in Scott, 1996, p. 69). The relegation of IKs and therefore Indigenous sciences to "myth," "legend" and "superstition" or, as Sepie (2017, p. 30) puts it, "pre-modern error made by early or 'primitive' humans," has led scientists to label this knowledge as fictional or, at best, anecdotal. As Scott (1996, p. 69) summarised:

While there is no a priori reason to expect that knowledge generated out of non-Western paradigms or social processes should be empirically or predictively less adequate, it has been an effect of Western ethnocentrism to construe non-Western knowledge processes as "pseudoscientific;" "protoscientific;" or merely "unscientific."

The impact of this has been the continued oppression of people via repression of their knowledge systems (Hauser, Howlett, & Matthews, 2009), a phenomenon that Sepie (2017, p. 2) concluded "is an extension of the global colonial project." Therefore, the capacity to teach science through different cultural lenses can be inhibited by the very discipline of one's expertise. To embed cultural competence in science curricula, a major challenge will be acceptance of the science of other cultures, by overcoming a reliance on a one-dimensional view of reality as a physical entity that can be cut up and measured to produce the only decisive fact and truth (Thaman, 2003). Decolonising the scientific tradition, for those who have been indoctrinated into it, is an essential prerequisite for culturally competent educators (Hauser et al., 2009; Nakata, 2011; Ryan, 2008; Sepie, 2017; Smith, 2012).

Finding ways to integrate different forms of knowledge can be very successful; however, it can also be problematic to fit IKs into scientific paradigms. Doing so can reinforce the superiority of one knowledge system over another, may obscure or distort the knowledge, or may strengthen the assumption that only those parts of another knowledge system that can fit a scientific paradigm are valid, while the rest is dismissed. Recognising that different knowledge systems can be integrated at certain intersections is paramount for introducing culturally inclusive material (Aikenhead, 2001; Casimirri, 2003). However, the complexity of IKs, and its embeddedness in spirits, peoples, species, landscapes and environments, means that its very nature as an *in situ* knowledge system juxtaposes against the *ex situ*, generalisable and material nature of mainstream science (Agrawal, 1995). As Aikenhead (2001, pp. 344– 345) warned, "inadvertent assimilation will take place in a science classroom if the local knowledge is taken out of its epistemic context." The perceived difficulty of navigating ways to introduce Indigenous science into mainstream science has led to some educators avoiding any inclusion at all. Fear of introducing "token" content or seeing it as "not my place" to introduce knowledge from another culture is a common and often valid barrier to introducing cultural competence content into teaching (McKinley & Stewart, 2012).

Beyond this, practical challenges with effectively embedding cultural competence into higher education programs include the receptiveness of students, and the capacity of lecturers and tutors to prepare and deliver strategies and/or content, as well as potential resistance from both groups (Abrams & Moio, 2009; McKinley & Stewart, 2012). A lack of readiness to discuss and process racism, oppression and white privilege can generate feelings of anger, resentment and guilt in both students and staff, thwarting efforts to build cultural competence (Abrams & Gibson, 2007; Julia, 2000). In addition to this, academics do not always have the necessary capacity to generate constructive dialogue around issues of race and difference and may not be prepared to deal with the personal and interpersonal emotions that these types of discussions can invoke (Abrams & Moio, 2009).

A further challenge in science is the lack of clear goals and measurable learning outcomes for cultural competence. However, as Abrams and Moio (2009) argued, having quantifiable outcomes to determine whether or not a student is culturally competent is diametrically opposed to the very philosophy underpinning cultural competence—it is a formative, ongoing process that involves cognitive, affective and behavioural changes that take time to manifest. Encompassing culture as a nonstatic concept also adds to this challenge (Kumagi & Lypson, 2009). In addition to the above points, having the full support of the University, with structures, frameworks and strategies in place to aid the development of cultural competence at the teaching level, is paramount. At The University of Sydney, the Indigenous Strategies and Services initiative and the Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu program, as well as the University's hosting of the NCCC, have provided the necessary framework and support network for embarking on this challenge in the natural sciences (Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017).

#### **What Strategies Can Integrate Indigenous Knowledges into Science Curricula?**

Although cultural competence has been strongly integrated into the medical and health sciences over the past two decades, with clear evidence-based goals for interacting with patients embedded in learning outcomes and accreditation (Downing & Kowal, 2011), the focus on cultural competence in natural sciences is decidedly less well-developed (Hauser et al., 2009; Snively & Williams, 2006).

The higher education sector has been striving for decades to encourage science students to integrate and transfer knowledge and skills from one discipline and apply them to another. Skills and knowledge about effective communication and mathematics and statistics have been referred to variously as "generic skills" or "transferable skills"; for example, there is an expectation that students will integrate their numeracy skills from mathematics into their biology studies. Although the University has taken steps to include multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary avenues for students, this way of thinking has not shaken the underlying monodisciplinary silo structure of teaching and learning. Critical thinking and problem solving are also viewed as transferable skills. However (and as previously mentioned), rarely do scientists explicitly criticise the role of positivism or the underlying cosmological assumptions of their ontological, epistemological and methodological approaches (Aikenhead, 2001; McKinley & Stewart, 2012). Aikenhead (1997) argued that being critical of the scientific subculture, and never requiring students to adopt a scientific way of knowing as their own personal ontology, can help to introduce reflective thinking in science and avoid monodisciplinary mind-shaping; "scientism seems to penetrate students' minds, like a hidden curriculum, when students learn to 'think like a scientist' and take on 'other habits of the mind'" (Aikenhead, 2001, p. 337). Teaching science as a product of culture—a cultural transmission—helps reposition science as just one way of seeing and doing (Aikenhead, 1997). This breaks down perceptions of knowledge superiority, and privileges western science and IKs as different knowledge realms that have different contexts and purposes of their methods and practices (Nakata, 2010).

Aikenhead (2001, p. 341) also argued that sometimes we need not integrate different sciences, and rather, the teacher should become a "cultural-broker" that helps students navigate "border-crossings" between different ways of thinking; that "a culture-brokering science teacher identifies the colonised and the colonisers and teaches the science of each culture." Nakata (2002) expanded on this concept, calling it the "cultural interface," the place where we accept that all knowledge systems are embedded in culture and are therefore dynamic and continually evolving. The cultural interface helps combat educators' perceived anxiety around introducing "token" knowledge or assuming they need to be aware of, and able to communicate, Indigenous perspectives. Nakata (2011, p. 5) explains that it is a space that asks for "the recognition of all the disruptions, continuities, discontinuities and convergences of knowledge in this space and appreciation of the complexities that exist there." This means discussing white privilege and Indigenous oppression and the impact of this on the evolution and validation of different knowledge systems (Nakata, 2002; 2011).

Decolonising and Indigenising curricula by integrating IKs content into teaching and learning involve incorporation of "a discernible 'Indigenous voice' as Indigenous people insert their own narratives, critique, research, and knowledge production into the corpus" (Nakata, 2007, p. 8). It can also provide a pathway for engaging and retaining Indigenous students. Nakata (2011) explained that Indigenous students in science can more readily navigate the cultural interface if IKs are embedded in curricula. In practice, Aikenhead (2001) suggests the introduction of a new topic that threads together western and Indigenous science to achieve this. He discusses the practicalities of doing this in a high school science curriculum in Canada and details the introduction of a new course called "rekindling traditions." Although the course integrates bicultural and bilingual examples of scientific phenomena, it goes further than just including content in a scientific framework and instead, starts by building an Aboriginal framework through which to view and review content (Aikenhead, 2001). The units of study always have a practical "on-Country" aspect where students meet with Elders and traverse Country. Spirituality and a connection to place and nature are cultivated before a "border-crossing" takes place and the content is explored through the lens of western science. During the "border-crossing," differences in values and language, and distortions of Indigenous science, are highlighted; for example, students look at the difference between "what is a wolf" and "who is the mahihkan" (Aikenhead, 2001, p. 345). This pedagogical approach employs storytelling in science teaching, reflecting knowledge as a narrative, embodying interdisciplinarity and highlighting the real-life context and application of science (Kimmerer, 2002; Kumagi & Lypson, 2009). It also emphasises Indigenous languages, a factor that McKinley (2005) argued is foundational to integrating IKs into mainstream science education. Most importantly, this approach does not try to replace science with IKs but finds ways of looking at the same natural phenomena in "both ways" (Aikenhead, 2001). As Nakata (2010, p. 55) articulated:

in this process, it is critical that our marine knowledge, transmitted through stories and through practices *in situ*, is not inadvertently codified into any science curricula in a way that confuses [students] about how we came to our knowledge and how science has evolved its particular way of doing knowledge. Nor should we entertain the deception that a science curriculum populated with Torres Strait content is a substitute for traditional forms of transmission and practice. Nor should we assume that our traditional marine knowledge can be a substitute for science.

Other skills that are increasingly recognised as weaknesses in scientists, especially when engaging with Indigenous and/or local knowledge systems, are community engagement, action research and participatory research approaches (Aikenhead, 2001; Weerts & Sandmann, 2010). Community engagement, facilitating dialogue and developing co-science in collaboration with IKs holders, is essential for authentic engagement with IKs. Participatory action research processes aim to break down researcher–participant power relations and address issues around the use of knowledge, ownership over knowledge and entitlement to knowledge (Cochran et al., 2008). Producing students with skills to engage effectively with IKs holders and communities, and to conduct research which respects multiple knowledge bases, is essential for fostering cultural competence and scientific literacy and for reinforcing the concept of science as a social and cultural practice (Roth & Lee, 2004).

In Australia, some universities have embedded cultural competence by mandating the completion of a university-wide junior-year subject in Indigenous studies across all undergraduate programs. Although this approach ensures that all students are exposed to IKs, Ranzijn, McConnochie, Day, Nolan, and Wharton (2008) warned against reliance on this approach alone. Integrating cultural competence across core and elective units of study, majors, minors and courses provides an avenue to weave together some of these transferable skills, in a way that cuts across disciplines and begins to introduce culturally different ways to produce and transmit knowledge. Most authors advocate a multipronged approach consisting of both standalone courses and integration into existing courses (Ranzijn et al., 2008; Hill &Mills, 2013). Others push this notion further and suggest that most research, teaching, learning, engagement and outreach within a faculty need to engage with cultural competence and include IKs (Hauser et al., 2009).

Opportunities to include IKs are present in all sciences including the natural sciences. Realising these opportunities requires working in collaboration, and navigating a way forward together, with students and staff, including Indigenous students and staff, and IKs holders and communities, to find respectful and appropriate ways to introduce content and develop cultural competence.

#### **Integrating Cultural Competence into the Natural Sciences Curricula at the University of Sydney**

The SOLES and the SSVS have aimed to embed cultural competence firstly, through a process of critical reflexivity, and secondly, through the introduction of innovative learning, teaching, research and engagement strategies. Initially, these innovations are being introduced predominantly from the standpoint of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. In the future, the program will be expanded to fully embrace the cultural diversity of the University, our region and the wider international community. This chapter outlines some of the key strategies implemented in these schools.2

#### 1. **Reviewing and updating science graduate attributes related to cultural competence**

Engaging faculty in curriculum renewal is difficult, with academic staff facing significant, competing workload pressures in teaching, research and administration (Edwards & Roy, 2017). Curriculum reviews that ask academics to embed concepts from outside their traditional suite of disciplinary material may be particularly challenging (Blackmore & Kandiko, 2012; Tagg, 2012). Of the nine graduate qualities (GQs) at the University, one of the most challenging for academics in the Faculty of Science is cultural competence, which is at least partly owing to its perception as more relevant to the humanities (Boutte, Kelly-Jackson, & Johnson, 2010). Analysis of learning outcomes and their alignment with the University-level GQs showed few (*n* = 6) science course components that had alignment gaps with cultural competence. However, of 91 learning outcomes aligned with cultural competence across the Faculty's course components, 34 (37%) were unacceptable or inappropriate, and a further 40 (44%) were unclear. Thus, very few learning outcomes were truly aligned with cultural competence. Feedback from academic leads during the learning outcome revision process suggested that many were unaware of how cultural competence is defined; that cultural competence constitutes more than working in diverse groups; and that cultural competence assessment needs to be spread across a major, stream or program, rather than individual units of study.

#### 2. **Seminar series on IKs**

In an effort to expose staff and students to IKs and its integration with science, an Indigenous seminar series was developed and hosted by the SSVS, with the aim to inspire and foster dialogue between staff and students about cultural competence and IKs. Guest speakers (often IKs holders and scientists) are invited from outside the University and their talks are recorded in an effort to archive this knowledge as a permanent resource. In 2018, guest presenters spoke on Australian native plants, Aboriginal participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, and the astronomy and navigation of Aboriginal people.

#### 3. **Developing and offering units of study within Sydney University's Open Learning Environment**

Academics from SOLES and SSVS helped to develop and implement a new OLE unit, OLET1607 Cultural Competence in Natural Science. This unit has been tailored to science students, providing them with a reflective space to develop cultural competence. It aims to introduce students to the basic tenets of cultural competence and encourages students to discuss and critically reflect on cultural competence values

<sup>2</sup>The authors would like to acknowledge that other Science Faculty schools have developed and implemented cultural competency initiatives which are not mentioned in this chapter.

and practice in research, placements and professional practice. This unit is aimed at achieving effective communication skills to ensure constructive interactions with clients and co-workers in diverse groups, and communities and environments across cultural boundaries. Academics involved in these units have also helped to build and teach into other open learning modules and units on cultural competence.

#### 4. **Introducing new content and curriculum scaffolding across select units**

#### *Reviewing the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Curricula*

In what was the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment (now part of SOLES), a review of the existing curriculum was undertaken (Cross et al., 2014) to assess the extent of, and future potential for, the inclusion of IKs. This study resulted in the development of a database of resources pertaining to the potential inclusion of new content, as suggested by lecturers; determined other potential avenues including research projects, for collaborating with IKs holders; aided the renewal of the teaching curriculum by providing and sharing resources and discussing their inclusion; and determined challenges, issues and constraints in respect to the inclusion of new material in the curriculum.

While many of the units of study to which this research refers were cut or redeveloped during the restructure, four key challenges were identified:


with focusing on Indigenous Knowledge—an academic I know worked on native crops …. publications, citations, forget it with Indigenous stuff, you are pushing it uphill" (Cross et al., 2014, p. 11).

#### *Threading Indigenous Language Through the Biology Curriculum*

Acknowledging IKs require first acknowledging and paying respects to the traditional custodians, past, present and future, upon whose lands our campuses stand. Language is of critical importance for Indigenous people globally (McKinley, 2005). There have been many calls from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians that before IKs are shared, and potentially exploited, we first need to address the issue of waking the sleeping languages of this country. In a biologically focused project on The University of Sydney campuses, we offer the language of the Sydney basin, provided by Patyegarang, a young Aboriginal woman, in the early days of colonisation, and documented at the time by William Dawes, a British officer and scientist, (Troy, 1994). Students have been working alongside academic staff to offer the "Sydney Language" names of the plants and animals in the biology curriculum (Quinnell, Troy, & Poll, 2018).

#### *Embedding Cultural Competence in Veterinary and Animal Sciences*

The SSVS has embarked on an effort to scaffold cultural competence into all degrees they offer, by embedding cultural competence into the graduate attributes and learning outcomes for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, and the Animal and Vet Biosciences, programs. In total, the school has implemented an estimated 40–60 h of cultural competence and IKs across 13 undergraduate and professional programs. One example is the unit of study called AVBS1003: Animals and Us, which explores how cultural backgrounds influence our relationships with animals and emphasises critical thinking as a learning outcome. Across these units, cultural competence/IKs are evident in the assessment and evaluation. SSVS also aims to develop skills such as effective cross-cultural communication throughout units of study and placements; and provides opportunities for students to have placements in Indigenous communities as part of the service learning model. Advice and toolkits on cultural competence to inform extramural rotations, and international and community placements and research, are provided to all students.

#### 5. **Developing and introducing a cross-faculty unit of study: AGEN3008— Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge**

To increase the cultural competence of staff and students across Science, the development and implementation of a new unit of study in what was the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment was pursued. AGEN3008: Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge is a unit of study that aims to develop staff and student knowledge and understanding of the specific opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous people living on, and caring for, Country. The unit also contributes to the development of community enterprises centred on land and food knowledge. The course is structured with a pre-enrolment activity, a pre-field study two-day preparation, a 13-day field study to Darwin, Katherine and Kununurra, and a post-field study day to consolidate learnings. Students and staff complete formal cultural competence and awareness training programs throughout the course.

Up to 30% of Australia is under some form of Indigenous land management with much of this land located in the northern part of the continent (Altman & Markham, 2015).With the onset of climate change, food production in Australia has the potential to shift the production emphasis northwards and with this will come changes in land management issues. Students graduating with a degree in agriculture, veterinary science, food production or environmental management should have the opportunity to gain an understanding of past, present and future Indigenous land management. Understanding Country from an Indigenous point of view is essential for graduates who will influence sustainable land management policies and practices.

The purpose of AGEN3008 is for staff and students to engage with key Indigenous organisations and communities to aid in the development of sustainable land-use, to provide local economic return. Students engage with communities to listen to what communities need and the vision they have for the use of their land, whether that be conservation or production-oriented. In collaboration with key community members and organisations, students then develop feasibility studies for enterprise development. These studies consider the cultural needs and capacity of the community, new and innovative management strategies, niche products, local environmental conditions, local markets and start-up costs. This helps students to gain professional experience working with Indigenous communities, and at the same time, giving back to the community a body of research and a potential grant application. The long-term aim for this course is to have students and staff to develop grant applications in collaboration with communities, thus transforming the course from a field study into a true immersion experience (see Fig. 14.1).

The rationale for introducing this course was determined by the evident lack of cultural competence in the former Faculty of Agriculture and Environment. A firsthand immersive experience to develop cultural competence skills in the field is a direct and effective way to bridge the gap between theory and reality (Ranzijn et al., 2008; Abrams & Moio, 2009), positions IKs holders as experts, and respects the *in situ* nature of Indigenous wisdom. The importance of this last point was echoed by Hill and Mills (2013, p. 70) in reflection on their immersion course at Charles Sturt University: "for once we were inside the landscape rather than standing outside

**Fig. 14.1** Model of engagement and assessment for AGEN3008 Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge

gazing at it … place rather than time emerged as the crucial element in developing our understanding of Indigenous cultural competence." The course was developed in consultation with Indigenous academics and knowledge holders and is based on a series of visits to Indigenous enterprises and cultural awareness workshops delivered by local Indigenous elders. Critical reflection, collaboration and engagement, and staff and students co-learning in the cultural interface together are key aspects of this course, and foster experiential and transformational learning (Ranzijn et al., 2008) or what Hill and Mills (2013) refer to as "adventure-learning." The unit explores IKs, language, history, culture and science, as well as western agricultural science, history and culture, and the interactions between these knowledge in various contexts.

The success of this course has been in the building of new relationships and developing understandings collectively via multiple knowledge. This transformative learning experience enables students to build relationships with each other and staff (both academic and professional) via a co-learning model, and with Indigenous land managers, communities and enterprises. Students have different disciplinary backgrounds—as well as science degrees, the course is open to arts, education and business students—which encourages diverse discussion. As this course has run for three years, the relationships with IKs holders and land managers has developed and strengthened, and each year the students are privy to new invitations and insights.

The reflective journal and essay illustrate the impact of AGEN3008 on student learning, with profound insights evident on entitlement to knowledge, history and culture (e.g. as one student commented, "Why did I think I could come in as a total stranger and just be given people's stories and knowledge?"), on-ground realities (e.g. as one student commented on funding for communities, "Why doesn't the rain ever seem to hit the ground?"), and the complexity and invisibility of white privilege (e.g. "I did not realise how much pain was caused by the construction of Lake Argyle and how current this pain is"). Further to this, a previous student has now undertaken an internship with one of the enterprises she engaged with during this unit. We hope that in future years, engagement in this unit of study inspires new student and staff research projects, and to maintain engagement, we run a Facebook group to continue sharing knowledge between students, staff and the enterprises/communities with which we engage. However, the ability to enable meaningful engagement in a two-week period is a severe limitation. Students have a very short time in each place and undertake stakeholder consultation for their projects via distance communication. Other drawbacks include the limited number of students that the course can accommodate, and the cost to students for flights, accommodation and food.

#### 6. **Embarking on new research initiatives**

To engage in cultural competence with students, staff in the Science Faculty have had to engage in their own journeys of cultural competence. For some, this has included a blend of involvement in professional development courses on cultural competence and completion of online modules (both provided by the NCCC), selfguided learning, and evolving research projects to encompass and draw attention to IKs.

One such initiative has been instigated by academics engaged in plant science. The Australian flora is unique. Connecting science undergraduates to our Australian flora is critical if we are to have botanically literate graduates to enable our agricultural and ecological systems to be managed and sustained. The standard biology texts used in teaching botany and learning across the country inadequately represent Australian flora, which our students see all around them. "Campus Flora" is an m-learning app co-created with students (using the "students as partners" model, see Healey, Flint, & Harrington, 2016). The Campus Flora app offers an innovative interactive botanical map, able to be accessed through mobile devices, which highlights the extraordinary biodiversity of plants on our campuses (Pettit, Pye, Wang, & Quinnell, 2014). The Campus Flora iOS app was launched in The University of Sydney AppStore in 2014, with the WebApp and Android versions following in 2015. Inherent in the app design was the capacity to offer the traditional names of plants, as used by local communities. In 2016, Campus Flora was showcased at the University for its capacity to (a) offer ethnobotanical and cultural narratives to support cultural competence in the curriculum, and (b) inspire new ways of offering student engagement with the botanical resources growing on our campuses. In 2017, the Patyegarang trail was offered to the University community (Quinnell et al., 2018). This trail presents the plant names in the Sydney Language (Troy, 1994). In connecting the Sydney Language back to our University campus, we honour the Gadigal Elders past, present and future.

In another case, agricultural researchers embarked on a project evaluating the effectiveness of an Indigenous engagement program delivered by a regional governance body, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, in New South Wales (NSW). In this research, regional land management challenges, successes and aspirations of local Aboriginal land councils were shared, discussed and documented. This has now resulted in new connections with Indigenous landholders and knowledge holders in the Central Tablelands, and has provided insight into contemporary ways people are integrating Indigenous and western land management practices via fire, weed and pest management, biodiversity protection, and cultural heritage maintenance (see Ampt, Cross, Berry, & Bell, 2018), consequently enriching teaching and bringing diverse perspectives into lecture material.

A "Grasses for Grains and Native Food Park" initiative is also being developed by researchers with local IKs holders in Narrabri, northern NSW. This project aims to recreate an Indigenous foodscape by bringing back a diversity of native grasses and other associated plants, both on a University of Sydney site and on two local Aboriginal land councils' properties, to research management practices as well as the edibility and food processing of native plants (Pattison, 2018). While this initiative is still evolving, it has already resulted in two student projects that have brought together western science and IKs.

#### **Reflections on the National Centre for Cultural Competence 2018 Conference**

The NCCC 2018 conference offered a plethora of experiences and strategies for integrating cultural competence into tertiary education. The most poignant discussions were on the importance of taking time and being patient with community engagement; the importance of personal connections in establishing trust for collaboration; and the intersectionality that can evolve when implementing and reflecting on teaching and research initiatives. In addition, there was discussion of cultural competence going beyond Indigeneity to focus on gender, sexuality, age and interpersonal approaches. One keynote speaker echoed some of the constraints found in our review and highlighted the lack of an agreed-upon definition of cultural competence; the lack of knowledge, skills and comfort about including cultural competence in academic endeavours; and the lack of leadership and organisational capacity to realise stated policy in practice (Goode, 2018). Overall, the forum lacked a clear focus on how cultural competence can be specifically achieved in the natural sciences.

#### **Insights from the Conference Workshop**

At the NCCC 2018 conference, a workshop was held to showcase what we had achieved so far in the Faculty of Science in regard to embedding cultural competence in the curricula. However, we are acutely aware that our efforts only "scratch the surface." We intended to use this workshop to brainstorm with our participants and learn from them to inspire new strategies in science. Academics shared their experiences in trying to implement cultural competence, and the resistance they faced from colleagues who perceived IKs to be incompatible with their teaching or feared that IKs would "take over" their courses. We discussed ways to overcome those barriers, such as making cultural competence training compulsory for staff, and giving staff time and space to reflect on new ways of teaching and embedding cultural competence. It was also suggested that academics be encouraged to find like-minded colleagues to build interdisciplinary collaborations and share learning activities and assessments, across the Faculty. Most workshop participants perceived that the most successful way to integrate cultural competence would be by recruiting Indigenous academics to build Indigenous pedagogy, support the development of learning and teaching resources, engage in teaching and research, and build networks across the faculty and with external organisations and local communities. We also received advice on creating culturally safe spaces, as determined by Indigenous staff and students. Participants explained that the strategy of the culturally safe space aims to help people feel safe to engage in the critical self-reflection encouraged across the faculty and facilitates the safe expression of feelings of comfort and discomfort.

One takeaway regarding cultural competence in the curricula was the current lack of an accreditation requirement in the generalist sciences (broadly), which therefore restricts the effective incorporation of cultural competence as a solid graduate outcome in the sciences. In veterinarian sciences, as in the health sciences, cultural competence is a required graduate capability. Most universities have commenced cultural competence work in the curriculum in those degrees where cultural competence is required and so have parked the (arguably) more difficult discussions of cultural competence in the generalist sciences. This is not to say that those in the generalist disciplines are not including cultural competence in their curricula.

#### **Going Forward with Cultural Competence in Science Curricula**

Underlying the effort to embed cultural competence in science curricula is a goal to evolve all staff and students, and ultimately the university system, to a point where science incorporates many ways of doing and works with IKs to improve and address social and environmental justice issues. This chapter has focused only on the cultural competence initiatives in SOLES and SSVS, yet this journey has only just started and our progress with cultural competence is still in the outer margins of what is possible.

Recognising divergent ontologies and epistemologies may require methodological pluralism in science (Cobern & Loving, 2000; Hauser et al., 2009; Kirmayer, 2012; McKinley & Stewart, 2012) and will require new thinking, where judgements, prejudices and assumptions are laid aside to "allow our consciousness to flow along new lines" (Peat, 1994, in Aikenhead, 1997, p. 225). Accepting that science can be developed through multiple evidence-based knowledge systems, and therefore that western science provides just one way of discerning "truth," is key. This reflects respect for the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity of staff and students. Aikenhead (2001, p. 350) concluded that cultural competence is most successful "when crosscultural science instruction creates a change in the relationships of social power and privilege in the science classroom."

The efforts made by the authors in this chapter to embed cultural competence into natural science curricula were supported by Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu, The University of Sydney's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander integrated strategy, via the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services (DVC-ISS)—which, however, currently relies on short term funding to implement strategies, largely in an ad hoc fashion. As a result, the initiatives outlined in this paper are vulnerable to change and remain unanchored in core business. For the Faculty of Science to move forward, it will need to invest in strategic planning, goal setting and ongoing evaluation to expand current initiatives, and move cultural competence from the fringes of teaching and learning into the centre of staff and student experiences, expectations and outcomes.

**Acknowledgements** We would like to acknowledge the Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu program run by the Indigenous Strategy and Services division of The University of Sydney for supporting and realising the initiatives detailed in this chapter.

#### **References**


**Rebecca Cross** is a human geographer whose research focuses on sociocultural and environmental interactions in agriculture and natural resource management. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Sydney. She leads social research projects in Cambodia and Australia, and helps facilitate AGEN3008, Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge.

**Elisa Bone** currently works in Science curriculum development and innovation at The University of Sydney. She has a research background in marine invertebrate zoology, and a deep interest in inclusive education in the biological sciences, with teaching experience in Australia, United States of America and Solomon Islands.

**Peter Ampt** is a lecturer in natural resource management and extension in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney. He is an interdisciplinary researcher who applies participatory mixed-method approaches to improve our understanding of complex adaptive social-ecological systems. He coordinates AGEN3008, Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge.

**Tina Bell** is an Associate Professor in fire ecology in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney. She is interested in the effects of fire on a range of organisms, and the ecosystem processes involved. She teaches fire ecology and plant physiology, and co-coordinates AGEN3008, Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge.

**Rosanne Quinnell** is an Associate Professor in Biology who also conducts research in education. She is interested in how students learn science and how best to use e- and m-innovations and interventions in the science curriculum. She has adopted a "students as partners" approach in a number of projects.

**Jaime Gongora** is an Associate Professor in Conservation Biology and Animal Genetics, and Associate Dean Indigenous Strategy, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney. Jaime has overseen the implementation of the Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu program in the Faculty of Science, and coordinates OLET1607 Cultural Competence in Natural Science.

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## **Chapter 15 Embedding Cultural Competence in Faculty: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of an Applied Indigenous Proficiency Workshop**

**Kerrie E. Doyle, Lauren Zarb, Kyar Wilkey, Kayla Sale, Chris Pitt, and Dein Vindigni**

#### **Introduction**

One of the most pressing issues in Australian society is the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and life expectancies (Marmot, 2017). Australia agreed with the World Health Organisation's 2008 *Closing the Gap in a Generation* report (WHO, 2008), spending approximately 5.6% of government expenditure towards ameliorating this gap (Gardiner-Garden & Simon-Davies, 2012), yet there have been only minimal positive outcomes (Alford, 2015; Gannon, 2018). In applied terms, this means Indigenous people are still dying younger (Anderson et al., 2016), scoring higher on psychological distress (Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, & McNeil, 2015) and suffering poorer indices on all chronic diseases (e.g. Walsh & Kangaharan, 2016; Thompson, Talley, & Kong, 2017). The level of complexity involved in addressing these "wicked" or seemingly "impossible to solve" health problems is made worse by the lack of any pan-national strategic planning and/or intervention evaluation

K. E. Doyle (B)

C. Pitt

K. Wilkey · K. Sale Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

#### D. Vindigni

School of Health and Biomedical Science, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

L. Zarb School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: AuntyKerrie.Doyle@westernsydney.edu.au

Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Clinical Academic Group, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia

(Lokuge et al., 2017), even though there has been a plethora of programs and projects designed to improve Indigenous health (see for example, AGPC, 2016).

Leaders in health and educational institutions must consider why there is a lack of progress in closing the gap in Indigenous health and life expectancies. Addressing the inequities in Indigenous health requires a determinant of health approach (Mitrou et al., 2014), as 39% of the gap in health outcomes can be explained by social determinates (AIHW, 2017;Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, Parsons, & McNeil, 2014). The social determinant considered to most reliably predict Indigenous poor health is racism (Kelaher, Ferdinand, & Paradies, 2014; Paradies, 2006; Paradies & Cunningham, 2009; Paradies et al., 2015; Paradies, Truong, & Priest, 2014).

#### *Racism and Its Effect on Indigenous Health*

Racism in Australia and Australian health care settings is often researched, with racism's associated negative impacts on Indigenous health recognised since the 1970s (Stevens, 1974; Paradies, 2016). Paradies (2006) empirically demonstrated the link between self-reported racism and poorer health. Larson, Gillies, Howard, and Coffin (2007) also confirmed a significant correlation between experiencing racism and levels of illness in Indigenous people. Ziersch, Gallaher, Baum, and Bentley (2011) found racism predicts poor health in urban Indigenous populations, and Awofeso (2011) also identified racism as a major impediment to Indigenous health and health care. Kelaher et al. (2014) showed how racism negatively impacts the mental health of Indigenous people, and Doyle (2012) demonstrated how cultural incompetence, if not racism, can threaten the therapeutic mental health journey of Indigenous people. Racism is recognised as a barrier to accessing health care in Australia (Bastos, Harnois, & Paradies, 2018). According to Paradies (2018), there are five areas for combatting racism in organisations and institutions, and one of these is cultural competence training for health workers.

#### *Cultural Competence Training in the Health Sector: Changing the Cultural Landscape*

Creating cultural competence in health care practitioners would be one way to tackle the inequities in Indigenous health (Doyle, 2015a; 2015b). It is the attitudes and behaviours of health care providers and researchers that are either culturally competent or not (Stoner et al., 2015), and many frontline workers continue to acknowledge their cultural incompetence (Wilson, Magarey, Jones, O'Donnell, & Kelly, 2015). An evidenced-based program embedded into the training mechanisms of all health professionals to skill practitioners in cross-cultural proficiency would decrease racism in health care settings (Durey, 2010; Gordon, McCarter, & Myers, 2016), by privileging the value of social justice and giving voice to Indigenous people as stakeholders in their own health (Reibel & Walker, 2010). Changing the focus of health care delivery to include cultural competence can reduce the health disparities of Indigenous Australians (Durey & Thompson, 2012).

Creating equity in Indigenous health settings needs to be a priority in health systems (Otim, Kelaher, Anderson, & Doran, 2014). It is necessary to understand the long echo of colonisation to develop a core value of social justice towards ameliorating poor Indigenous health status (Griffiths, Coleman, Lee, & Madden, 2016) and to recognise that respectful communication is the key to closing the gap in the quality of health care delivered to Indigenous people (Thompson et al., 2017). Although reorienting the culture of professional health care systems towards equity is challenging (Baum, Bégin, Houweling, & Taylor, 2009), the benefits of embedding an anti-racist approach to health service delivery are acknowledged and mandated by Australia's peak bodies (Spencer & Archer, 2015).

#### *The National Health and Medical Research Council*

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is one of Australia's peak bodies that support health and medical research; develop health advice for the Australian community, health professionals, and governments; and provide advice on ethical behaviour in health care and in the conduct of health and medical research. One of NHMRC's earlier initiatives was a publication entitled *Cultural Competency in Health: A guide for policy, partnerships and participation* (NHMRC, 2005). This guide promoted the teaching of cultural competence for all health professionals although it is clear that health professional education had not adopted the recommendations over a decade later (Ewen, Barrett, & Howell-Meurs, 2016). As most, if not all, health professions require a bachelor degree that leads to registration, Universities Australia (UA) created a policy for tertiary institutions, intending to decrease health disparities by embedding competency-based curriculum.

#### *Universities Australia's Cultural Competence Training*

Universities Australia is considered the peak body of the university sector and represents all Australian universities. One of its aims is to develop policy positions on higher education matters through discussing higher education issues including teaching, research, and research training. As a function of this, UA published the *Guiding Principles for Developing Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (UA, 2011). The guiding principle for teaching and learning Indigenous cultural competence is that "all graduates of Australian universities should be culturally competent" (UA, 2011, p. 7). To this end, UA (2011) recommends that Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) and perspectives are embedded in all university curricula to provide health students with the knowledge, skills, and behaviours which underpin Indigenous cultural competence. Accomplishing this recommendation will mean the inclusion of Indigenous people at every level of governance and management, university teaching, research, and community engagement (UA, 2011).

#### *National Accreditation of Health Professionals*

Health care registration bodies, or boards, are the peak bodies for each of the health professions. Many of these boards require health curricula to include Indigenous cultural competence. For example, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), Competency 2, states that a Registered Nurse "practises within a professional and ethical nursing framework … practises in accordance with the nursing profession's codes of ethics and conduct … accepts individuals/groups regardless of race, culture, religion, age, gender, sexual preference, physical or mental state" (NMBA, 2010, p. 3). This puts responsibility onto the tertiary providers of nursing and other health disciplines' education to have Indigenous academics who are also registered health professionals, engaged to deliver authentic, evidence-based courseware in cultural competence. Embedding cultural competence into health courseware is intended to have health care graduates ready and able to care for Indigenous clients and thus develop cultural proficiency in their practice and their employing organisations.

While individual health care workers' performance in their cultural proficiency journey is largely a function of professional development and assessment, workers' attitudes and behaviours certainly affect the overall reputation for racist or non-racist interactions in the Indigenous community (Griffiths er al., 2016). The performance of health care organisations and their interactions with Indigenous people is measured by the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

#### *The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework Reports*

The *Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework* ("the Health Framework") is produced every year by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (cited as CoA) and reports on three tiers of health performance with data from multiple health sources. The Health Framework considers health status and outcomes, determinants of health, and health system performance. The 2014 Health Framework affirmed Freeman et al.'s (2014, p. 356) statements that improving the cultural competence of health care services can "increase Indigenous people's access to health care, increase the effectiveness of care that is required, and improve the disparities in health outcomes."

The 2016 Health Framework (CoA, 2016, p. 27) considered racism and discrimination as determinants of health, especially where "systematic or institutionalised racism is apparent in policies and practices that support or create inequalities between ethnic groups." The 2016 Health Framework (CoA, 2016) also reported that 11% of Indigenous people had experienced discrimination from health staff within the past year. Given that word-of-mouth and being vouched for are crucial factors in working with Indigenous communities, having one in every ten Indigenous people discriminated against by health staff would give that health service a reputation for poor service, and therefore, it would be unlikely to be utilised by the people that most need it. The 2017 Health Framework reported "depression as a [function] of racism" (CoA, 2017, p. 76), thus reinforcing the importance of cultural competence in health care services (CoA, 2017, p. 162).

#### *The Australian Commonwealth Department of Health's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework*

The *Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework* (CoA, 2014) ("the Curriculum Framework") was developed to address the variability among all health professions and higher education providers, in terms of the nature and extent to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum is implemented. Underpinned by eight principles designed for successful curriculum delivery (see CoA, 2014, pp. 27–31), the Curriculum Framework describes the interconnected cultural capability model's five values of respect, communication, safety and quality, reflection, and advocacy, grounded in culturally safe relationships. Each of the five cultural capabilities are aligned to a series of primary learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are adapted from Bloom's revised teaching taxonomy (Atherton 2013) and form a continuum of *novice* to *intermediate*, then *entry to practice* levels (CoA, 2014, p. 35). Recognising the different health education environments, the different needs of health professions' curriculum, and the varied resources available to faculty, the Curriculum Framework includes several models suitable for providers to adapt and use.

Another model recommended in the Curricula Framework is Zubrzycki et al.'s (2014) *Getting it Right Framework,* which outlines the best practice for integrating cultural competence in staff and curricula in health education programs. While their framework is for social workers, Zubrzycki et al. (2014) recognise the model can be adapted across other health specialties and is useful for non-Indigenous teachers.

Given the current low numbers of qualified Indigenous health lecturers, the Curriculum Framework recognises that non-Indigenous teachers will also need to be able to teach Indigenous health and Indigenous students. The Curriculum Framework recommends that all university staff need to have a core value of respect for culture and to privilege Indigenous voices whenever possible. Applying these models and concepts requires thoughtful negotiation with colleges and communities who still live in an ongoing colonised condition, and the state of Victoria is used here as an example.

#### *Cultural Competence in Applied Settings: The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency's Cultural Competence Matrix*

Terry Cross, a First Nations American, created a postcolonial cultural competence model that reinforces proficiency rather than awareness and is based on a human rights/social justice approach (Cross, 1989). The model has stages of competency development, like Benner's stages of clinical competence of novice (observer) to expert (engaged participant) (Benner, 1984; Pasila, Elo, & Kääriäinen, 2017). The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency's (VAACA) (2008) *Aboriginal Cultural Competence Matrix* adapted Cross's (1989) framework to describe behaviours and attitudes on the cultural competence continuum that are specifically related to the Indigenous context. Cross's (2008, pp. 278–289) model describes cultural competence as the "acceptance of, and respect for, cultural diversity within the organisation; service delivery is reviewed and adjusted to meet the needs of different population groups." The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency's model has *acceptance* and *respect* as the core components for cultural competence in all health care (VACCA, 2008, p. 24), demonstrating the fit of Bloom's taxonomy of three learning domains: cognitive, physical and affective, or rather, skills, knowledge, and behaviours (Cannon & Feinstein, 2014).

#### **Summary of Cultural Awareness/Competency Models**

Distilling the above examples of peak bodies' recommendations for implementing Indigenous content and advice around the embedding of cultural competence in health education providers demonstrates that core values are quintessential to consider in any cultural competence conversations. Bloom's taxonomy is used as a pedagogy, where learners' skills, knowledge, and attitudes or behaviours are shaped by experienced Indigenous teachers. These frameworks require all staff be given the opportunity to attend training to facilitate their cultural learning.

#### *Facilitating the Faculty*

Following the UA's recommendations to embed cultural competence into every health course would require faculty members to have some level of skills and knowledge themselves. As part of the University's Reconciliation Action Plan, all staff members were mandated to attend a cultural "awareness" training event. In concert with this mandate was the roll-out of the embedding of Indigenous content into each course curriculum. To get buy-in from course coordinators, faculty and professional staff were invited to a workshop that demonstrated the cultural competence education given to undergraduate health students. Having faculty attend cultural competence programs can facilitate their own learning journey and demonstrate to staff an effective and Indigenist pedagogy (see Behar-Horenstein, Garvan, Su, Feng, & Catalanotto, 2016).

#### *Pedagogy for Cultural Competence Workshops*

Learning is dependent on the pedagogical approach teachers use in the classroom (Darling-Hammond et al., 2015). An adjusted model of Bloom's three learning domains was used to underpin the learning activities of the cultural competence workshop (the "workshop"), relying heavily on the affective domain of emotions and attitude (Bloom, Krathwohl, & Masia, 1984). Overemphasising the cognitive domain when seeking attitudinal shift is often futile and risks losing the desired change in participant behaviours (Vossler & Watts, 2017). It is common to have resistance to training aimed at challenging participants' belief systems (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, & Park, 2017), so care must be taken ensure the participants feel safe in the workshops (Crandall, George, Marion, & Davis, 2003).

For these reasons, the workshop used historical events of significance to Indigenous people (e.g. Cook's landing, frontier wars, stolen generations, and government policies such as the requirement for Indigenous people to have identity papers), along with personal narratives, to share an Indigenous experience with participants that invited them to consider the impact of colonisation without the taking on feelings of guilt and shame (Willen & Kohler, 2016). Guilt and shame are not life-affirming responses and do not contribute to closure of the health gap (Torino, 2015), whereas reflection of self and what informs one's stereotypes is necessary in one's cultural proficiency journey (VACCA, 2008).

**Fig. 15.1** Aunty Kerrie's wrap-around model of cultural proficiency

#### *Creating a Three-Dimensional Model to Embed Cultural Proficiency Skills in Health Professionals*

The workshop was designed for health care academics and professional staff to demonstrate the courseware offered to students and to embed a desire for cultural competence in workplace behaviours. The workshop model for cultural proficiency uses Benner's (1984) novice to expert competency model wrapped around Bloom's taxonomy of skills, knowledge, and attitudes/behaviours (Forehand, 2010), to explain the process of "assess, plan, implement and evaluate" (APIE) and the ladder of self-reflection (see Fig. 15.1).

Aunty Kerrie's model allows the clinician to maintain therapeutic integrity using the APIE system and foster culturally proficient skills through a set of self-reflection behaviours. The main aim of this model is to facilitate a client-centred journey in paralogy with clinicians or practitioners. This was the model used in the faculty workshops.

#### *The Cultural Awareness Workshops*

The term cultural "awareness" is contentious (Truong, Paradies, & Priest, 2014) and not recommended by the UA. As Fredericks (2008, p. 11) points out, Indigenousspecific cultural awareness training in the health sector reinforces a deficit model by holding "Indigenous people, as being under serviced, needy and problematic to non-Indigenous people to some degree," or attempts to fix Indigenous people (Bourke, Humphreys, Wakerman, & Taylor, 2010). The deficit approach, even if it is "wellmeaning", is based in a racist framework (Freeman et al., 2016, p. 99). Nonetheless, there was pressure from the organisation to advertise the workshops as "cultural awareness workshops".

The workshops, entitled "Cultural Awareness for Staff", were advertised via Eventbrite to all staff in the health colleges. There were 312 "hits" on the site, with 95 participants (60 staff and 35 higher degree research students) choosing to attend one of the nine workshops. Workshop times and days were staggered during the academic semester to facilitate attendance by staff.

#### **Methodology and Results**

A Qualtrics e-survey was sent post-workshop to the 55 participants in the first workshop, with 40 participants completing the survey. In order to maintain anonymity of respondents from a small campus, no demographics were collected. Participants were asked to score their opinion from 0 to 100 on seven items (see Fig. 15.2):


#### **Findings**

A simple thematic analysis was conducted on the comments of participants (*n* = 35). These comments were categorised into two emergent themes: *personality of presenter* and *need for more education* (Table 15.1).

#### **Discussion**

While the majority of participants considered the workshop to be a positive experience, some participants might have felt uncomfortable or confronted by the material and for this reason, felt that they could not confidently discuss the Indigenous history of Australia. This might be a function of the initial "shock" of hearing stories regarding local history; for example, participants had heard of Murdering Gully Road in Victoria but had not realised it was named after the massacre of the local Aboriginal people (see Barker, 2007; Broome, 2005; Clark, 1995; Tatz, 2012).

It was also evident that some participants did not see the relevance or importance of being able to effectively communicate across cultures or considered their particular

**Fig. 15.2** Participants' scores on workshop content

workspace as not requiring an understanding of Indigenous Australia. Selling cultural competence to science disciplines can be challenging even though scientists may recognise the importance of IKs (Doyle, 2017).

The findings from the comments indicate that some participants recognised the limitations of a single workshop and that they needed "more" education before considering themselves competent. The second finding was based around the charisma or acceptability of the presenter to the participants: this aspect might have positively skewed the data but not necessarily meant a change in attitudes or behaviours towards Indigenous people. Having equivocal results such as these makes replicating the core components of this workshop challenging. A second workshop with a different presenter might have made the findings more robust. Results that can be considered ambiguous can make translating research into practice challenging.


**Table 15.1** Thematic analysis

#### **Translating Research Into Practice**

Measuring cultural competence in health care settings is usually inferred by the behaviour of its Indigenous service users, using variables such as self-reporting on patient experience or being discharged against medical advice, and employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers (CoA, 2017). Some researchers measured the patients' perceptions of health care professionals' level of cultural competence and deem proficiency as a perceived skill (Truong, Paradies, & Priest, 2014), or measure critical thinking and correlate that to cultural competence (see Garneau & Pepin, 2015). Deeming a health service to be culturally competent is more complex than considering Indigenous user satisfaction rates (Paradies et al., 2014) as it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of interventions to address cultural competence in health care for Indigenous people (Truong, Paradies, & Priest, 2014; Clifford, McCalman, Bainbridge, & Tsey, 2015). The lack of accepted indices of success in health care delivery makes measuring success in university settings just as equivocal. Should we canvas Indigenous students to see if they feel the lecturers have adopted the core values of cultural competence? Should we measure the students' skills, knowledge, and attitudes pre and post their university degrees to see if the cultural competence in their university courses resulted in a change in their perspectives? Should we undertake longitudinal studies on health alumni? Should we partner with a clinical facility to survey Indigenous patients, to allow for subjective assessment of health care staff? These are the questions that need to inform the next round of authentic research, to discover whether health and university executives have the political will to view the results through an Indigenous lens and operationalise cultural proficiency in all staff at all levels. Mandating this skill will contribute to a decrease in institutionalised racism and help close the health gap.

#### **Conclusion and Recommendations**

The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in terms of health status seems intractable, even with an annual government budget of millions of dollars. There is a plethora of projects aimed at increasing the health of Indigenous people, yet there has been no meaningful change in Indigenous people's health status (see DPM&C, 2018). One reason for the lack of movement in the health bridge is because there has been no meaningful change in racism—that most salient social determinant of health. Having academic and health service staff able to operationalise a culturally proficient framework would surely contribute to a decrease in institutionalised racism. Having health professions with graduate attributes that include social justice facilitation, with university courses designed to include the embedding of this attribute, would also contribute to cultural proficiency. Universities have generic graduate attributes that might need to consider the ability of all students to be able to communicate effectively with Indigenous people.

There is a need to have multiple approaches at multiple levels for effective cultural competence facilitation (Truong, Paradies, & Priest, 2014). Educators, for example, will need different approaches to cultural competence than health workers, and even then, different disciplines will have specific cultural competence needs as well. For this reason, one workshop cannot cover all comers. Specifically designed workshops need to cater for the needs of the participants and be delivered by qualified Indigenous health, or other, professionals. Regardless of the target audience, adopting a humanistic approach from core values such as social justice and dignity is the most appropriate starting point.

#### **References**


**Kerrie E. Doyle** is the inaugural Professor of Indigenous Health in the School of Medicine at Western Sydney University, and leader of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Clinical Academic Group at the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise. She is a social scientist and mental health clinician, has over 40 years' experience working in Indigenous health and communities and has various research interests including her collaboration in the Global Burden of Disease project.

**Lauren Zarb** is a New Zealand-trained Registered Nurse with an extensive work history in cancer nursing. She works as a lecturer in nursing at La Trobe University and remains committed to improving outcomes in cancer care. Lauren is currently undertaking a PhD investigating the role of nurse leadership in cancer nursing.

**Kyar Wilkey** is a Ngarrindjeri woman from South Australia. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours). She is a Research Assistant at Western Sydney University with the Translational Health Research Institute and Maridulu Budyari Gumal. Kyar's research interests relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and well-being.

**Kayla Sale** is a student as well as Research Assistant at Western Sydney University, working within Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise. She is a third-year podiatric medicine student with an interest in diabetes complications, musculoskeletal disorders, and the health of Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse groups.

**Chris Pitt** is a Project Officer within Maridulu Budyari Gumal and works closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. He has qualifications in psychology and public health. His research interest is in the field of health informatics and Indigenous Health.

**Dein Vindigni** OAM is a chiropractor with over 35 years' clinical and academic experience. He was recently the lead in the Chiropractic Program with the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. Dein's primary research interests are Indigenous Health, aged care, and assisting vulnerable and marginalised communities.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Chapter 16 An Indigenous Australian Cultural Competence Course: Talking Culture, Race and Power**

**Bronwyn Fredericks and Debbie Bargallie**

#### **Introduction**

Cross-cultural training in its various forms has been around in Australia since the 1980s. It has primarily been viewed as a way of improving knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and a means to improving service delivery (Fredericks, 2006, 2008; Fredericks & Bargallie, 2016). This led to government departments that serviced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples recognised as leaders in this arena, closely followed by other agencies who offered services. Over time, the training has developed and has come to be known as cultural awareness, cultural competence, cultural responsiveness, cultural safety, cultural sensitivity, cultural humility, cultural capability and a range of other names. Our literature review indicates that there is no consistent definition of "cultural competence" and no definition that is universally accepted. As a result, the terms have been used interchangeably even though each term accentuates particular nuances in context and aim. In Australia, the terms "cultural competence" and "cultural capability" have been primarily used in education, whereas models of cultural safety, cultural humility, cultural security and cultural competence have been associated with health care. The cultural safety model is more aligned to Canada and New Zealand, and cultural competence, or cultural competency (which term is more prominent in the USA). The term "competence" (or competency) implies a set of skills, knowledge and attributes that are obtained as a result of learning. Considering the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia, it is unrealistic to think that cultural competence could be measured or attained through ad hoc Indigenous cultural competence training courses, in a country where idealised and homogenised

B. Fredericks (B)

The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia e-mail: pvcie@uq.edu.au

D. Bargallie Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, QLD, Australia

visions of Indigenous culture are the object that oversimplifies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and reinforces negative stereotypes. Increasingly, Indigenous cultural competence in Australia has been broadened out from the desire to improve service delivery, towards a strategy of decolonisation and anti-racist pedagogical approaches. Indigenous cultural competence curricula design and implementation are being more inclusive of Indigenous people's voices, worldviews, knowledges and pedagogies as key elements to address inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Numerous tertiary institutions additionally offer cultural competence training via their human resources department or professional training area or their Indigenous centre.

In this chapter, we focus on teaching Indigenous cultural competence training courses within Australian higher education institutions. Using one institution as a case study, we share how, as Indigenous designers, trainers and educators, we came to centre race within an Indigenous cultural competence training course. We offer our chapter to demonstrate how power, whiteness, race, culture and "other" interplay within such training. We now turn to our case study.

#### **An Australian University Case Study**

Central Queensland University (CQU) is a large, regional Australian university with 24 campuses, study centres and study hubs across Australia. It has a history in distance education through a range of online and flexible learning platforms. In 2012, the CQU Council approved an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strategy to further its commitment to improving Indigenous access, reconciliation, Indigenisation of curricula and cross-cultural training of staff within the university. The Office of Indigenous Engagement (OIE), at that time led by Professor Bronwyn Fredericks, was given the task of facilitating the University's strategic efforts regarding Indigenous engagement, the Indigenisation of curricula and cultural competence training.

In commencing the work of developing a cultural competence course, it was important to build on the evidence (Anning, 2010; Asmar, 2011; Butler & Young, 2009; Fredericks, 2006, 2008, 2009; Fredericks & Thompson, 2010; Kinnane, Wilks, Wilson, Hughes, & Thomas, 2014; McLaughlin & Whatman 2007, 2008, 2011), including what had been undertaken in other Australian universities (Adams, 2010; Anderson, 2011; Arthur et al., 2005; University of Sydney, 2016). We additionally sought to incorporate the recommendations of those working in the sector (Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012; Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008; UA, 2011) and draw on our own experiences within higher education and other sectors.

Consultation took place across the university in terms of content, course length, mode of delivery, training locations, catering, resources and engagement with stakeholders, including traditional owners and elders. We were determined to develop a course that was not just an apolitical rehash of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history that failed to interrogate the role that race and racism have played in the colonising project of Australia. Similarly, we were determined not to solely focus on cultural elements that fail to recognise the fluidity and diversity of Indigenous cultures and identities, situate Indigenous people within romanticist notions of culture that position Indigenous people as the exotic "other" and/or separate Indigenous culture into pre-colonial history and the now. We did not want to position Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the objects of the training. Bond's (2014) work was important to draw on here; Bond warns that Indigenous educators can be easily objectified in the learning environment and advises us to focus on addressing some of the markers of objectification within the education setting. This often plays out in education environments via requests for and expectations of "Welcome to Country" and "Acknowledgement of Country" ceremonies, traditional dancers, smoking ceremonies, singers and elders talking about Aboriginal "Dreamtime" stories. While these types of activities might be enjoyable when incorporated into training and might offer an insight into some forms of Indigenous cultures (Fredericks, 2008; Fredericks & Thompson, 2010; Hollinsworth, 2013; Westwood & Westwood, 2010; Young, 1999), this does not mean that those activities change behaviour or challenge the way the organisation undertakes business with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is hard to ignore the fact that Welcome to Country ceremonies is expected to be performed by people whose descendants have been dispossessed as a result of the colonial project, and this in turn can make the act of Acknowledgement of Country a mere performance. What makes these performances enjoyable to non-Indigenous people is the "pure pleasure of proximity to the exotic" where they can enjoy "Indigenous culture and presence without feeling threatened by Indigenous sovereignty" (Kowal, 2010). These types of training or activity do not challenge the way participants see themselves, their actions or their complicity in maintaining racial inequities. In fact, these types of training and activity have little relevance in terms of application to participants' day-to-day work environments; there is extremely limited evidence that this type of approach advances the lives of Indigenous people.

Young's (1999) work, together with the work of Brach and Fraser (2000), Campinha-Bacote (1999), Fredericks (2006, 2008), Spencer and Archer (2008) and others, offers numerous examples of problems when such training primarily focuses on culture. They all explain why training needs to centre race as the platform from which to open discussions on racism, privilege, discrimination and change. Lumby and Farrelly (2009) suggest that "content addressing racism, bias and discrimination needs to be included in any generic module of cultural competence training being undertaken by all staff and management". They explain that this type of content in the training enables the capacity for individual change which can lead to organisational shifts. On understanding these arguments, we committed to developing a training course that would focus on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identities in all forms and real possibilities for connections with CQU staff. We wanted to challenge romantic and exotic notions of Aboriginality and Indigenous identity. Moreover, we wanted to challenge Eurocentric and "White" understandings of what culture is and is not, and what an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person is and is not (Carlson, 2016; Fredericks, 2013; Gorringe, Ross, & Forde, 2011; Hollinsworth, 1992, 2013; Sarra, 2011). Statements about how someone looked or acted, and references to their Indigenous identity, had been raised numerous times by both students and staff across the university; this needed to be addressed in the cultural competence course for the university.

Before moving ahead with the development of content, a review of Universities Australia's *National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities* (2011) also took place to ensure that the development of the course was aligned with the national platform and direction informing the sector. Last but not least, it was established that the course would be developed from our Indigenous standpoints, with race underpinning our theoretical perspectives. We drew on critical Indigenous studies and standpoints as a mode of analysis (Moreton-Robinson, 2009) and critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001) as an epistemological framework for non-Indigenous participants to interrogate their own cultural positionings (McLaughlin & Whatman, 2011), and for both non-Indigenous and Indigenous participants to examine institutional racism. The course needed to centre race and challenge thinking and behaviours. It needed to offer opportunities for participants to reflect on their own cultural identity, and white privilege, attitudes, prejudices and propensity to stereotype, challenge racism and promote anti-racism practices. In addition to this, the course needed to be accessible via a face-to-face course and an online teaching platform. This would enable accessibility to all staff across the wider CQU footprint, which included over 20 campuses and study hubs. It was our view that this approach would better contribute towards the CQU goals of inclusion, engagement and building cultural competence, rather than merely offering a course about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures that does not lead to the recognition of the changes—including the structural changes—required. We agree with McGloin and Carlson (2013) that critical thinking is a crucial element in the acquisition of cultural competence and sought to embed this in the development of the course.

#### **Developing the Cultural Competence Course**

In addition to drawing heavily on examples from the large evidence base, we discussed with others within the OIE what they thought should be in such a course. We began to map out specifically what this course needed to contain. Based on the evidence, it was essential in the first part of the course to introduce and examine colonisation and the history of Indigenous dispossession, removal, trauma and pain, along with the ongoing effects of historical and contemporary federal and state policies and legislations about Indigenous people that locate racism at the core of Australian politics. We also deemed it essential to present evidence of Indigenous resistance, agency and activism, and how this continues today. We argue that it is essential to provide critical historical context to understand the contemporary experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The course demonstrates how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples enact many forms of agency as a form of resistance against the institutional racism embedded in policies and practices since the onset of colonisation.

The course's later sessions were developed to focus on participants' everyday work within the university. We knew it was important to discuss the concepts of race, racism, discrimination and white privilege (McIntosh, 1988) and how they play out within institutions such as universities. Drawing on the work of Bargallie (2020), we also wanted to demonstrate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience racism through systems and structures, in their everyday work with colleagues in large organisations, such as a university. Participants were to be asked to self-reflect on how matters of race impact on their own day-to-day lives.

The final session of the course we decided on required a discussion about CQU's commitment to "Closing the Gap" and reconciliation through its Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). The final activity would see participants consider what they could do in their workplace that could contribute to the implementation of CQU's RAP.

We believed this mixture of content would enable discussions that challenge stereotypes held of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and showcase how Indigenous people continue to demonstrate resistance and agency. We wanted participants to think about their positioning and how they could make a difference within their work with the university and within broader society (Westwood & Westwood, 2010; Young, 1999).

#### **Beginning to Implement the Course**

A two-day course was developed as a flexible learning course, which meant that some of the learning was to be online and some face-to-face. The full implementation of the course was to be trialled by offering it four times, across three campuses. This work was supported with funds from the Higher Education Participation Program and the OIE. Data, including written evaluations, was to be collected from each site. We additionally established roles for two colleagues—one non-Indigenous and one Indigenous—during the delivery of the first course. They were to assist in documenting the delivery of the course, including their personal observations. Before the implementation of the trial course, we were advised by senior management that it would cost too much if everyone wanted to undertake the course and leave their workplace for two days, and to cut the face-to-face component down to one day. This left us questioning the institutional commitment to the Indigenous cultural competence training in comparison with other staff development training. This chapter draws on observations and data collected from the first course offered. After the course was delivered for the first time, the content was fine-tuned, and other facilitators assisted with the delivery.

In understanding the delivery of the first course, what was strikingly obvious was the participants' body language and the questions they asked. When we, the facilitators, talked about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the participants appeared interested and focused on what we were saying. When we moved the discussion to the participants reflecting on themselves and discussed issues of racism and privilege, they became uncomfortable. Some participants crossed their arms as if to shield themselves, while others found it hard to stay focused within the discussion. We did observe two participants writing notes to each other across the table during this time. The lead facilitator raised the discomfort some people may have been feeling, talked about how difficult talking about race and racism can be for many people and encouraged participants to stay engaged. The discussion that followed revealed how people struggled with focusing on white privilege, actively displaying their resistance via their contributions, or lack thereof, and ongoing body language. This observation by the facilitators was supported via the documentation of our two colleagues who were observing the delivery of the course.

DiAngelo (2012) explains how it is easy to be distracted by participants who dominate or, in this case, resist, and many facilitators spend a lot of time and energy trying to reign in these participants. In such cases, many educators tend to silence "race talk" to keep participants "happy" or from "getting upset" or "offended" (Castagno, 2008). As facilitators, and as Indigenous women, we participate in race talk along with managing racist practices and racist behaviours every day, in a range of environments. This provides us and many other Indigenous people with significant exposure to the discourses and practices taken up in racial dialogues that function to support white domination and privilege—a "whiteness" that is similarly identified by DiAngelo (2012).

We persisted to challenge the "white silence in these racial discussions" (DiAngelo, 2012, p. 1) despite participants feeling uncomfortable. We continued to reassure participants that we were in a "safe space" to have these conversations. We took added courage from the work of DiAngelo (2012, p. 1) who states, "going against one's grain for engagement, while difficult, is necessary and will result in the least harmful and most authentic and rewarding engagement". To break the silence and engage in conversation, the lead facilitator used a number of strategies including asking questions to open up wider group discussion, asking participants to write down self-reflection responses to particular themes of discussion and breaking the participants into small group exercises. One of the difficulties that is not written about by DiAngelo is that we believe that some white people would rather listen and respond to white people regarding race, racism and white fragility, or to people such as DiAngelo, rather than Indigenous people or people of colour.

We also had to work through issues with a few Indigenous participants who had unknowingly been co-opted into supporting white fragility (DiAngelo, 2011) and white privilege (Frankenberg, 1993; McIntosh, 1988; Moreton-Robinson, 2004; Nicholl, 2004; Sullivan, 2006; Wellman, 1993). DiAngelo (2011, p. 54) describes "white fragility" as follows:

a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviours such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stressinducing situation. These behaviours, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.

White fragility is used to defend white privilege. The term "white privilege" is defined as "the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed upon people solely because they are white" (MP Associates, 2019). During the lunch break, some non-Indigenous participants were voicing their concerns about what they considered to be "culture" with some Indigenous participants, and saying they had come to learn about the "little spirits" and "dot art". This prompted one Indigenous participant to question the lead facilitator after the break about why we were interrogating race and racism. This was challenging and complex, in that the Indigenous participant had dismissed issues of racism as they impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and this was witnessed by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants. If we did not address this, it would be seen by some as also dismissing those issues, and by others as endorsing a position taken by only a small number of Indigenous people. While this was a difficult discussion to have, it was useful in demonstrating the hidden nature of whiteness issues, and how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can be co-opted into the way whiteness has been historically constituted and normalised within mainstream Australian society.

We needed to address several difficult questions and a range of emotions expressed on the day. We understood that emotions are powerful in the learning process and need to be both harnessed and embraced. Emotions were expressed through some people revealing that they felt like a veil was lifted on the truth, and others needing to inform the group that they had recently discovered they may have an Aboriginal ancestor. Why were not they learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture? Why were we focusing on them? What about their experiences of having an Aboriginal friend, or an Aboriginal relative? A number of participants were pleased the discussion was so open. Some participants cried, expressing that they felt "sad" or "guilty" about what has happened to Indigenous people. And, while we did not accuse anyone of anything or say anyone was guilty of particular incidents, a number of participants stated that they were not happy feeling that they were being accused of past events for which they are not responsible. Some participants were vocal about working hard for what they had and should not be expected to "give up their backyard". We know from the literature that such courses and conversations about race and racism often bring up participants own white fragility and their need to protect their white privilege (DiAngelo, 2012).

It is our view that there was no way to deliver this training without centring race and interrogating the stories of racism. Bargallie (2020) identifies that racism, as a word, is primarily absent in conversation with non-Indigenous work colleagues. It is often off limits or never to be used. This means that institutional and everyday racism is left untouched, to proliferate. The only talk is to be happy talk and that which focuses on the pleasing elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. This is backed up by the common mantra that there are no racists here, there is no racism here, or it's not racism. For many white people, the fear of being accused of racism is far worse than the act of racism itself (Ahmed, 2012; Bargallie, 2020). Bargallie (2020) argues that there is almost always the denial of racism or, furthermore, the denial of racism by non-Indigenous work colleagues; if any conversation on racism is raised, people deny there is any racism at work. This conflicts with the everyday reality of Indigenous people within the workplace, including within workplaces such as universities. In this way, Bargallie (2020) argues "racism is both absent and present". She explains this as the "absent presence of racism" in the workplace (Bargallie, 2020). Lentin has coined the term "not racism" to describe this phenomenon of denial and argues that this is "a form of racist violence" (Lentin, 2018). We did not want to perpetuate that form of racism within this course intended for participants to learn about cultural competence.

#### **Feedback and Evaluation of the Course**

The overall feedback and evaluation revealed that we achieved what we set out to do with the course and helped us shape the following courses offered as part of the trial. While acknowledging that some of the discussions were difficult, people generally enjoyed the opportunity for open interaction and discussion. It was identified that there was a need to encourage all participants to take greater responsibility for their own learning and to do "more work" through group work, conversation, critical thinking and analysis.

What was also realised through part of the feedback was that we needed to clearly identify to participants, in advance of the course and in some detail, what they would be learning and the type of learning journey they would be taking. While this is not normally part of other types of professional development programs, participants felt this would help dispel myths around what they thought cultural competence was or was not. We also needed to clearly explain what Indigenous cultural competence was in relation to the content of our course; this could be supported through extra reading materials to be made available online to participants. The feedback also enabled us to purchase copies of the book *Indigenous Australia for Dummies* (Behrendt, 2010), one for each participant. The cost of each book could easily be built into the cost of the course and enable us to give participants a resource to take home for follow-up reference. This would be important, given that the course had been reduced to one day. The book was gratefully received by participants in the courses that followed, which confirmed our decision that had been based on the evaluation of the first course was correct.

An unexpected comment in the feedback received from a few participants was that the course should not be so "difficult", which surprised us. On discussion with others in the university, we were advised that we should try to find a way to "dumb down" our content. This shocked us. We are sure that people in the university who deliver training where they refer to occupational health and safety legislation, discrimination legislation or fire drill procedures are not asked to "dumb down" their content, or not cover core elements of the legislation, policy and so forth when offering that training to staff. We did wonder whether the "dumb down" comments were intended to help us find a means to protect participants against discussions on white privilege, and in that way, undermine the reality of race and racism. We argue that requests to "dumb down" our content are a form of the ongoing colonising violence in Australia and to do this would be defaulting to white understandings and comfortabilities (Leonardo & Porter, 2010).

Other comments on the evaluation forms conflicted with one another. For example, while most people wrote that the facilitators were "passionate", "articulate", demonstrated "knowledge" and dealt with issues, a couple wrote that the facilitators were "aggressive" or "angry". We know that it is common for Aboriginal women and women of colour to be positioned as "aggressive" and "angry", rather than "assertive", "passionate" and "articulate" which is the way non-Indigenous women and men are positioned. Lorde (1984), Moreton-Robinson (2000), bell hooks (2000) and Fredericks (2010) have all written about the trope of the angry black woman, the angry woman of colour and the angry Indigenous woman, particularly when challenging racism. Being "intelligent", "assertive" or "articulate" are traits reserved for white people.

At the end of the delivery of the first course, we, as the facilitators, needed to debrief. Our colleagues who documented the course also articulated the need to undertake debriefing. Emotions expressed by participants during the course had impacted upon all of us. During the course, numerous racist comments and statements of denials were made by participants. The lead facilitator had felt the full brunt of the comments and statements, and, at one point, before our team met to debrief, she described how her body felt like she was having a stroke. She was not. Instead, she was feeling emotionally and physically battered. We supported one to another to work through the issues and to also feel safe again. Our experiences speak to the myth of "safe space" in race dialogue between white and Indigenous people which, we argue, is a veiled form of violence. This "safe space" is a white privilege where white people can "avoid publicly looking racist". For Indigenous facilitators or participants, the "*violence is already there*" (Leonard & Porter, 2010, p. 139).

The evaluation of the first course enabled us to produce a strong "Indigenous cultural competence" course that was subsequently offered three more times as part of a broader trial. We received overwhelmingly positive reviews, positive comments via emails, and some participants posted positive messages via their social media accounts (Stokes, 2015). Many people who had completed the face-to-face training said they wished that it had been longer than one day, despite the fact that they needed one day from their workplaces to undertake the course. Others who had not done the training had indicated that it should be one day or shorter.

Despite the very positive feedback, the course did not get off the ground for broad roll-out within the university. Instead, the senior management of the university decided to invest monies into the development of a "diversity" course from within the School of Education and the Arts, which would cover a range of "equity" groups. For example, the course would cover Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, sexual diversity, gender, disability and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, all within a five- to six-hour course; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander component would equal approximately "one hour". Reducing the Indigenous cultural competence course content down to one hour and lumping it into a "diversity" course validate the concerns we had raised earlier about the institutional commitment to Indigenous cultural competence. This "diversity" course does not evoke commitment to action and is largely non-performative. As Ahmed (2012, p. 53) argues, "the institutional commitment for the term 'diversity' is a sign of the lack of commitment to change and might even allow organisations such as universities to conceal the operation of system inequalities". The cultural competence course developed within the OIE based on evidence and then trialled and fine-tuned based on feedback has not got off the ground.

#### **Conclusion**

In developing a cultural competence course, we drew on over 40 years of practice by others and what Australian universities, and universities in the international context, have offered by way of cross-cultural training, cross-cultural awareness training, cultural competence training and cultural safety training (Sherwood & Edwards, 2006;Westwood &Westwood, 2010; Yang, 2000).We engaged with the literature and talked with people at a number of universities. We spoke to people within the National Centre for Cultural Competence at The University of Sydney. We additionally drew on our own experiences. We have both been engaged in delivering cultural awareness training in government departments and in organisations. We knew that the course needed to be designed to be more than the basic cultural awareness training courses offered in a government department in the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s (Fredericks, 2006). On reviewing the literature and based on our experiences, it is obvious that those basic courses do little to bring about change either within the workplace or in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Moreover, discussions around race, racism and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues have moved on since the 1990s, and cultural competence courses need to reflect this.

We set out to develop a course that was based on the evidence and aligned with the directions being undertaken in the sector and by universities of Australia, to encourage participants to critically engage with content that would cover history, race, colonisation and the future. Along with this, we sought to foster critical thinking, selfreflection and discussions about cultural identities, privilege, attitudes, prejudices and propensity to stereotype, challenge racism and promote anti-racism practices. The course also needed to align with and mirror the goals and aspirations outlined within CQU's RAP. The course we developed achieved all of this. It enabled varying degrees of personal transformation (Kelly, 2013; Young, 1999), and we hope the participants are able to utilise their transformed level of understanding to make shifts within their practices within the university. The course we developed is not going to be offered in the university and we find this disappointing, since we know that it had the capacity to develop and build tangible skills and strategies for staff. We additionally know that it would have greatly contributed to making shifts in the organisation for the future, and it is this reality that offers the greater disappointment. One of the greatest learnings for us in this process has been that despite the 40-plus years of evidence gathered, monies being made available for course development, consultation with staff and a trial being offered, this work was still derailed by the managerial processes and opinions of non-Indigenous people who think they know what is best within the cultural competence arena. This demonstrates that Indigenous cultural competence training is still largely driven by non-Indigenous people through white racial frames that inform how and what they seek to know about Indigenous people. As Indigenous educators in Australian universities, we advocate for an "intellectual solidarity" (Leonardo & Porter, 2010) in developing and delivering Indigenous cultural competency training fuelled by a desire to do away with racism. This requires seeing race and racism at the centre of political policy, process and practice rather than in the margins and where the struggle against the racial subordination of Indigenous Australian peoples becomes the higher good.

#### **References**


**Bronwyn Fredericks** is a Professor and the Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) at The University of Queensland. Bronwyn holds qualifications in health and education and worked in tertiary education, government, and community controlled organisations and is additionally a Commissioner with the Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC).

**Debbie Bargallie** is a postdoctoral Senior Research Fellow with the Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University. Debbie holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests are in Indigenous Knowledges, decolonising methodologies, race, racism, critical race theory, and racial literacy.

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## **Chapter 17 Learning Through Reflection—Enhancing Culturally Proficient Learning Communities in Midwifery Practice and Education: An Experience-Based Learning Journey in London, UK**

**Penny Haora**

#### **Introduction**

This reflective narrative shares an experience of immersion at the highly political "intersectional" coalface of gendered, class and racially based maternity services research, practice and learning in London, UK. I initially set out to apply Levin & Greenwoods' ( 2001, p. 103) "pragmatic action research" approach to transform a small component of universities and health services into learning communities. This was to be achieved through the introduction of a reflective cultural competence assessment tool. However, I encountered multiple resistances and was unable to introduce that tool. Instead, utilising Brookfield's (1995) critical lenses, I witnessed "prestige hierarchies" (Napier et al., 2014, pp. 1608–9), persistent deficit discourses and institutional racism; and privileged "white" educational structures that continued to support those practices, while simultaneously producing rhetoric of inclusion (University of East London, 2015). Transformative learning (Mezirow, 1997) was an explicit goal to be achieved within the learning experiences of students, and a goal of the active learning ideals of "learning by doing", role modelling and reflective learning, recognised in various fora. However, personal reflections on my own experience found that the goal of transformation was only relevant to the "student other", while within the academy, there was little opportunity to breach "professorial authority" (Levin & Greenwood, 2001, p. xxxiv). Following Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, and Ananeh-Firempong (2003), I proposed using tools that were relevant to clinical practice, to support reflective learning at both individual and institutional levels, in pursuit of cultural proficiency (Lindsey, Nuri-Robins, & Terrell, 2009). I offered a basic logic

P. Haora (B)

National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Westmead, NSW, Australia e-mail: Penny.Haora@health.nsw.gov.au

<sup>©</sup> The Author(s) 2020

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_17

model asserting that safe care spaces for women clients within maternity services must be preceded by safe learning spaces for midwives (staff) and students. Wikberg, Eriksson, and Bondas (2014) argued that culturally competent health services are a core component of "caring". They asserted that an expectation of care is universal when accessing health services. Poorer health outcomes for women from minority ethnicities within the UK (Hayes, Enohumah, & McCaul, 2011) may be related to differences in health care-seeking behaviour but clearly that is also associated with experiences of care. Political will, cultural humility (Sreenivas, Cohen, Magana-Valladares, & Walker, 2015) and a partnership approach are essential, I argue, for sustained change and progress in both practice and educational contexts.

#### **Action Research Background and Context: The "Classroom" and Learning Philosophy**

While employed as a full-time university-based, service-embedded researcher in London, UK, from 2014 to 2017, I also held a small teaching role within the research programme. The research programme aimed to improve equity in birthing outcomes for women and families in East/North East London. This was a multi-site collaboration focusing on antenatal care (ANC), funded by a major UK health research funder, with a large National Health Service (NHS) Trust as the "host".

The maternity services research project I led involved implementation of an innovation, where we were developing and trialling a locally appropriate model of groupbased ANC. This model differed from standard care in several key areas that it is appropriate to outline here, due to their relevance to the action research (AR) project to be described in this chapter. The ANC model recognised "women as partners" in their pregnancy care and general well-being, by encouraging and actively seeking to empower women to voice their experiences and "knowledge" within a safe group space. The model also recognised the value of supportive relationships (Sandall et al., 2016), aiming to facilitate these during the transition to parenthood through enhancing "learning communities" (Levin & Greenwood, 2001).

The same values and principles were recognised and reflected in relevant local and national strategic directions and professional standards; for example, in the University's Strategy for Closing the Attainment Gap (University of East London, 2015), the Higher Education Academy's "evidence-informed principles for effective pedagogies" (HEA, 2009) and the UK Professional Standards Framework (HEA, 2011) for higher education. That is to say, these "guideline" documents espouse equity and inclusion, partnership, supportive relationships (belonging), and transformative learning experiences (becoming).My personal values were well aligned, and I aspired to embed these values within my professional practice.

Practising within this new model required midwives to work in significantly different ways from that to which they were accustomed. Consequently, developers including myself, had collaboratively designed and offered new educational opportunities for midwives and others who were most closely and frequently involved in ANC, within the NHS Trust. One education offering was a continuing professional development module within which I designed and led one of four workshops. The module philosophy firmly recognised "learning by doing" (Cottrell, 2015), where role plays, practice, simulations and role modelling were incorporated. We recognised "becoming" a successful ANC group facilitator would only occur once participants' learned skills, knowledge and attitudes were transferred into the practice environment.

Prior to my recent foray into "autobiographical" reflective pedagogical AR which will be elaborated on here, my only experience of AR was in the context of participatory action research (Wadsworth, 2001) in the "international community development" field. The approach was used to engage and empower communities to prioritise and work on identified determinants of health and well-being.

#### **Getting Started with Action Research: Initial Observations and Reflections**

The starting point of AR has been discussed by Altrichter, Feldman, Posch, and Somekh (2008), with Elliott (1991, pp. 73–75) who has offered the term "reconnaissance" to describe the AR activities of (a) "describing the facts of the situation", and (b) "explaining" these facts. As outlined, the context of my teaching was within a continuing professional development module for midwives—with varying levels of academic learning experience—offered as part of broader service innovation.

Several observations initially contributed to a curiosity about this topic area and then, following some informal "information gathering" (discussion with colleagues) and reflection, my AR focus was decided. While I noted the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity apparent within the "student body" (midwife colleagues) in the East London context, it also appeared that this diversity was not proportionately reflected within leadership and/or senior management positions in the health services. A search of published and grey literature revealed that there was, indeed, a general phenomenon of differential opportunity across the NHS (Kline, 2015), and what appeared to be evidence of discrimination in this specific professional context (RCM, 2016a, 2016b).

Upon observation of the NHS Trust's "organisational environment", another realisation became apparent—the need to empower midwives (Ryan & Tilbury, 2013) to empower women. Findings from research conducted within the context had indicated that midwives often felt fearful (RCM, 2015) and disempowered (Rocca-Ihenacho, 2016) due to the organisational culture and environment, leading to a general unwillingness to change or try something new (McKellar, Pincombe, & Henderson, 2009).

Another observation was made regarding my other colleagues in this context midwifery academics and educators across several university campuses in London where there seemed rarely to be a person of a minority heritage. While not having access to location-specific data, I nevertheless became more informed through referring to relevant research (Alexander & Arday, 2015). With regard to particular learners, I heard "deficit discourses" during discussions, which caused me some discomfort. Within the module in which I taught, while it was clear that some midwives had well-developed skills (an existing level of competency) in group facilitation (the main learning outcome of the module), several learners voiced fears about not being experienced or capable in the "academic sphere". I wondered about the impact of these issues on women being cared for within the services, on the everyday lives and working lives of midwives in general and, particularly, on the everyday lives and working lives of midwives of ethnic-minority heritage. More precisely, I wondered what this might mean for me, as a "teacher", in this learning environment, and the types of challenges I might face. How would I ensure quality, equitable and relevant learning (and teaching) opportunities in my "classroom"? Who and what was available to guide me in this context? While having spent approximately six years immersed (Wood & Atkins, 2006) in several countries and cultures of Asia, and having completed a learning experience in "culture, subculture and communication"; realisation of deficits on my part, with regard to other population/cultural groups prevalent within my current circle, was an additional influencing factor for my decision to select the AR approach for exploration of the issues identified.

My ongoing observations seemed mutually reinforcing, rather than challenging my initial analysis. A chance to conduct AR in cultural proficiency, as part of a formal qualification in learning and teaching, and to further my understanding, seemed like a valuable opportunity. The idea of doing or trying something "concrete" (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988) in an attempt to improve the situation was appealing; developing an "intervention", testing its effectiveness and utility, all within a context of reflection and referral to multiple sources of "data", seemed valuable in itself. Evaluating various outcomes through AR with reference to multiple forms of "knowledge" (Odora Hoppers, 2002), and with the understanding that the process was ongoing and the learning intervention could be and/or would be revised, was an added bonus.

#### **Action Research Framework and Method: What is AR and Why Use It in This Context?**

The main justification for the selection of AR in the context described was that such an approach encourages the cultivation of "an inquiry stance" (Chapman, Lewis, Osborne, & Gray, 2013, p. 130). I felt this approach to research provided significant advantages and was particularly relevant, not only to me as a teacher, but because at the core of cultural proficiency is reflexivity. Additionally, I had the sense that a reflective approach would be less "threatening" in terms of the expectation that participants engaged in an AR process would "step outside their comfort zones", and in the case of some of my learners, that they could "contribute" and participate (i.e. in reflection) without having to respond overtly (i.e. in the presence of others). The overall aim, therefore, was to create not only "a community of practice" for educators (Wenger, 2012), but a "safe learning community" for all.

Upon consideration of various options proposed in the published literature, the AR model that seemed to provide the best framework for the research processes upon which I was embarking was O'Leary's "cycles of research" (O'Leary, 2004, p. 140) (see the adaptation of this model at Fig. 17.1). In my application of this model, "observation" included research/data collection from various sources.

**Fig. 17.1** Adapted from O'Leary's Cycles of Action Research

#### **Developing the Initial "Active Inquiry" Proposal: Engaging in Planning for Action Research**

Initially, I gained a sense that there might be a lack of cultural competence learning within midwifery education in the UK. This was confirmed by discussion with several senior academic colleagues, a literature search of relevant databases using appropriate key terms (cultural competence, midwifery, education and variants), and a scoping exercise where I consulted experienced and knowledgeable academic/research colleagues via an international midwifery research email list.

At the proposal writing stage, I identified the topic area for the AR, provided a basic introductory background and rationale, outlined what I hoped to learn, sketched a brief theoretical framework supporting my practice and proposed intervention, and described the planned methods, while also reflecting on ethical (British Educational Research Association, 2011) and practical considerations.<sup>1</sup> The proposal was developed from a combination of various "voices" (based on Brookfield's four critical lenses; see Brookfield, 1995) where the ongoing desire to work towards social change (Griffiths, 1998) in and outside the classroom, seemed to make the chosen issue of focus, "cultural competence in midwifery", amenable to AR. Additionally, my teaching practice environment seemed an ideal opportunity to draw upon the "assets" present in the classroom to facilitate learning for all. Additionally, my teaching practice environment seemed an ideal opportunity to draw upon the 'assets' present in the classroom to facilitate learning for all. An asset-based approach is in contrast to deficit thinking frequently observed (e.g. see Bouattia, 2015).

As another step in the cycle, more information gathering to inform planning took place (i.e. the uses of AR in the discipline of midwifery were investigated). The large majority of recent publications utilising AR methods focused on *change in midwifery practice*, not midwifery *education* (see, e.g., Nyman, Berg, Downe, & Bondas, 2015; McKellar, Pincombe, & Henderson, 2002; McKellar, Pincombe, & Henderson, 2008; McKellar et al., 2009; Moore, Crozier, & Kite, 2012). However, some publications had focused on undergraduate (pre-registration) midwifery (and nursing) curricula (Fraser, 1996, 1999, 2000a, 2000b; Smith et al., 2000; Wilkins, Leamon, Rawnson, & Brown, 2008). Some focused on improving research skills (Crozier, Moore, & Kite, 2012; Nikbakht, Parsa, & Barimnejad, 2005); others, on reflective practices of [nurse] educators (Smith, Gentleman, Loads, & Pullin, 2014); and others, on midwives' supervision support (Deery, 2005). Possibly of most relevance to my fledgling ideas, this search located two studies that evaluated cultural competence education within undergraduate nursing programmes (Reid, 2010, Bond); one investigating experiences of cultural competence educators (Wepa, 2003); one investigating the use of an online tool promoting cultural humility (Sreenivas et al., 2015); and one evaluating the extent to which a particular health concept had been integrated into health professionals' curricula (Smith et al., 2000).

<sup>1</sup>Note: an ethics review process was not engaged in, as the proposed research did not progress to the implementation phase.


Overall goal: Strengthening remote area maternity services

AR processes were applied to develop and evaluate a learning tool (see Table 17.1), and this approach resonated with some of the initial ideas for my chosen project.

#### **Taking Action**

Following the above steps, the overall aim of this research project became: to facilitate "cultural exchange" and learning within midwifery [education]. A "partnership approach" to learning (HEA, 2009; Healey, Flint, & Harrington, 2014; Smith et al., 2000) means teachers learn from students, students learn from each other, students learn from the teaching and modelling of culturally competent teachers, and professional colleagues share with and learn from each other (Wenger, 2012); and we all learn by applying our learning in practice. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the learning needs of both midwifery students and faculty in this domain, to achieve the anticipated improvements in cultural proficiency in midwifery care. In my context, there were opportunities to draw on the diversity within the student body to enhance our "being" competent midwives and midwifery educators, since midwifery education is recognised as "transformation to competent practice"—that is, learning, knowing, becoming and being (HEA, 2009).

#### **Developing the Theoretical Framework: A Logic Model and Rationale for Increasing Intentional Learning Opportunities in Cultural Competence for Midwives**

Through previous work, I was familiar with "cultural safety" in the discipline of nursing (Ramsden, 2002); however, very little published literature could be located about this topic within midwifery. Relevant work was found in allied health and medicine, so I decided to widen the search to include evidence from other health care disciplines. This literature review occurred iteratively in several "waves", according to the need to inform the AR, as identified, during the reflective cycles. Initially, the

**Fig. 17.2** A logic model of action research in cultural competence, proficiency and safety in maternity care and education

search was focused on the literature in the chosen topic area: cultural safety, proficiency and competency, within midwifery. Next, as previously explained, existing work on AR within the discipline of midwifery was sought. To articulate the underpinning rationale and facilitate evidence synthesis, it became necessary to propose a working logic model (see Fig. 17.2) to describe the planned AR and to illustrate connections between the key concepts under consideration. This also provided further justification for the chosen research aim, objectives and methods.

Based on evidence gathered using the "four critical lenses" (Brookfield, 1995), in this case the views and experiences of service users, other literature, my own observations and colleagues' experiences, I asserted in the AR proposal that the aspiration was cultural safety (Ramsden, 2002) within maternity care and education. I proposed this would only be achieved within culturally proficient practice cultures and communities; and by acknowledging midwifery as an Art and a Science but extending the "head and hand" to add "heart" (the interpersonal component). These views, I argued, would only be developed through the achievement of cultural competence at both individual and organisational levels. Furthermore, it has been asserted that to achieve competency in intercultural contexts, appropriate learning experiences must be provided (Nairn, Hardy, Harling, Parumal, & Narayanasamy, 2012), and that self-reflection is a key component of learning processes (Williamson & Harrison, 2010). Following the process of critical reflection, the question was asked: why do we need cultural safety and proficiency in maternity care systems anyway? In the broadest sense, it seems unequivocal that cultural aspects influence personal views of health and illness (Tseng & Streltzer, 2008). Our cultural embeddedness becomes a frame of reference through which we experience care, and care experiences are informed by our subconscious beliefs about what constitutes appropriate behaviour and "treatment" during significant life events such as births, deaths and illnesses (Tseng & Streltzer, 2008). Wikberg et al. (2014) argued that culturally competent health services are a core component of "caring". They asserted that caring is universally expected of health services. Cultural beliefs and practices significantly influence health care-seeking behaviour, and this can affect subsequent health outcomes (including life and death; e.g. choices around treatment options). Research has found there are poorer health outcomes for women from minority ethnic groups within the UK, even after controlling for potential confounders (Hayes et al., 2011). Broadly, inequalities in health outcomes and care are well documented (Betancourt et al., 2003; Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2003).

Women's experiences of birthing and their maternity care have a strong influence on their subsequent adjustment to parenthood (e.g. dealing with a traumatic experience), and even longer-term maternal and infant health and well-being (e.g. attachment and parenting) (Barlow & Parsons, 2005). More specifically, "culturally sensitive care" has been shown to influence birth outcomes (Downe, Finlayson, Walsh, & Lavender, 2009). Women from culturally and ethnically diverse groups have been found less likely to report positive experiences of maternity care (Ali & Burchett, 2004; Small, Liamputtong Rice, Yelland, & Lumley, 1999).

The NHS is recognised as an employer with high levels of ethnic diversity in its staff. However, this diversity has not been reflected in higher position levels, and disciplinary action has been reported as more common among staff from minority groups (Kline, 2014; RCM, 2016a). In terms of regulatory standards, policies and guidelines for practice and education in the UK context, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) admonishes cultural sensitivity in health care (NMC, 2015), as does the RCM. The World Health Organisation (WHO) urges that education be culturally relevant and incorporate diversity (WHO, 2013). There is clearly a need for midwives competent to provide quality care in this respect; however, a lack of cultural competence within maternity care has been found (Noble, Engelhardt, Newsome-Wicks, & Woloski-Wruble, 2009).

Betancourt et al. (2003, pp. 297–299) outlined three levels or types of interventions for improving cultural competence: (a) "clinical cultural competency interventions"—that is, at the individual level and manifest "at the bedside"; (b) "structural" interventions; and, (c) "organisational" interventions. Following Betancourt et al. (2003, p. 298), I suggested that interventions addressing cultural competence at the organisational level—in this case, hospital and health services environments—were, due to the highly hierarchical nature of such organisations, synonymous with "structural cultural competency interventions". I argued the aim was to promote "cultures of care" or "a safe practice space" for midwives and other health care workers, rather than just safe care for "patients/women" (McKee, West, Flin, Grant, & Johnston, 2010). Napier et al. (2014, pp. 1608–1609) asserted the need for "reshaped" clinical cultures in health care institutions, rather than historical "prestige hierarchies".

It has been argued that "managerialism" within the NHS can militate against culturally proficient care, due to time pressures and efficiency measures placed on staff (Hollinsworth, 2013, p. 1053). Kleinman and Benson (2006) asserted the need for "culturally informed care", as opposed to health systems and services that have been defined as "monocultural" and Anglo-dominated (Cioffi, 2004). The need for health care organisations to build partnerships with communities has been asserted (Latif, 2010), as well as the need for connections to be made between public sector organisations and civil society (UNESCO, 2001). In order for these aspirations to be realised, in attempting to build political will for faculty engagement in the AR process, I argued an attitude of "cultural humility" was needed (Sreenivas et al., 2015; Wikberg & Eriksson, 2008).

Following Betancourt et al. (2003), I argued that "organisational cultural competency interventions" were also required to enable safe learning spaces for diverse learners (Hockings, 2010; Husbands & Pearce, 2012; Mountford-Zimdars et al., 2015; Pitkajarvi, Eriksson, & Pitkala, 2013; Sobel & Taylor, 2011). This would involve "reorienting pedagogies" and "decolonising education" in the context of my project (Ryan & Tilbury, 2013). Tileston and Darling (cited by Bostrom, 2011, p. 1) noted "achievement data from recent … tests document that culture has a greater impact on the gaps in achievement than does poverty". Cultural competence of teaching staff cannot be assumed, and in order to achieve this in the classroom, I assert that intentional learning opportunities are needed for teaching practitioners (Kripalani, Bussey-Jones, Katz, & Genao, 2006; Miller, 2001). Frenk, Chen, Bhutta, Cohen, and Al (2010, p. 1923) have asserted the need for the "redesign of health [professionals'] education" including reciprocity and partnership, recognising "opportunities for mutual learning". In terms of the teaching body the need to "promote cultural diversity … at all level[s]" has been emphasised (Kripalani et al., 2006, p. 1118).

Following reflection on this evidence, I wondered where to begin with learning and teaching in cultural competence. Aligned with, and going back to, the principle of transformative learning, becoming culturally proficient and understanding diverse cultures requires learners to engage in critical self-reflection about, and on, their own culture(s) and subcultures (Bostrom, 2011; Hollinsworth, 2013). I would go on to argue that before this process could begin, a fostering of "cultural desire" was needed (Wikberg & Eriksson, 2008), as well as a willingness to change one's attitudes and behaviour (Michie, Van Stralen, & West, 2011).

Learning experiences in the area of cultural competence need to go beyond "shopping list" approaches with "static notions of culture" (Jenks, 2011), to avoid "cultural racism" and "deterministic interpretations" (Hollinsworth, 2013). An "openmindedness" (Jenks, 2011) needs to be fostered, and a recognition that "diverse cultural identities are negotiated", and there must be a willingness to "learn from" others as individuals, rather than think we know "about" them (Hollinsworth, 2013).

My search then turned to existing cultural competence curricula, modules and tools being used within midwifery, and ideally applying a transformative learning approach (Mezirow, 1997) that is not just about knowledge acquisition, but developing and changing thinking capability to bring about new ways of being in the world. Finding that more work in this field had been done within curricula for health professionals other than midwives—for example, social work (Lenette, 2014), allied health (Lubinski & Matteliano, 2008; Ronnau, 1994), nursing (Reid, 2010) and medicine—I then considered possibilities for utilising a relatively new approach: that of "interprofessional learning" (Barnsteiner, Disch, Hall, Mayer, & Moore, 2007; Cullen, Fraser, & Symonds, 2003; Furber et al., 2004; Murray-Davis, Marshall, & Gordon, 2011). Service-user involvement, which is being utilised more frequently in the development of programmes and curricula for health care professionals (Chambers & Hickey, undated; Towle et al., 2010), would arguably be another useful input in this context.

Realising the complexity of developing a useful learning intervention in this area, I began to search course work resources and academic literature for more information to aid in decision-making about selecting the most effective pedagogical methods for my two "learners" and context, and to choose the most appropriate content (Beach et al., 2005).

#### **Developing the Intervention Tools: Methods Used**

Having opportunistically discussed my interest in the area of improving cultural competence in midwifery with senior midwifery colleagues—three female academics—I envisaged their support for introducing two first-stage individual-level interventions. These would be formatted as simple questionnaires, prompting selfreflection on attitudes, experiences and beliefs; and developed, with the appropriate permissions, from tools and methods used in other contexts, as found in the literature (C2ME, 2015; MSH, 2008; Papadopoulos, Tilki, & Ayling, 2008; Sutton, 2000).

The choice of this approach was informed by Kolb (1984, see pp. 20–38). Rather than gathering information to assess cultural competence per se, as done in some research studies (e.g. studies listed in Carey, 2011), a key objective would be to initiate a dialogue that included the experiential learnings and reflections of participants "grounded in [their] experience[s]" (Kolb, 1984). This would enhance the process of knowledge creation and widen the interpretation to include experiential knowledge of participants, as well as my own knowledge gained from engaging in the AR process. Similarly, Mulligan (1993, pp. 54–57), explained the activation of "internal processes" during experiential learning, such as "remembering", "sensing" and "imagining", and it was expected that these would be initiated while engaging with the questionnaires. While Elliott (1991, p. 49) stated "the fundamental aim of action research is to improve practice rather than to produce knowledge", I argued that in my context it was the production of these alternative knowledges that would lead to improved practice through engagement in the AR cycle. At the same time, I recognised my "researcher bias", and referred to the "typological contrasts" made between "research as evidence and research as pedagogy" (Campbell & Groundwater-Smith, 2007, pp. 69–72). Another key objective was to move midwife participants from what was arguably their dominant domain of "technical rationality" (i.e. the NHS and academia), into a space of "reflection-in-action" (Schön, 1991, pp. 21–69). Undertaking this initial AR process, it was envisaged, would also inform development of the later stage(s) of the AR (see "cycles within cycles", Dick, 2000) such as the utilisation of various learning "tools" aiming to improve cultural competence.

Subsequently, following another database search, and using key words related to cultural competence instruments or tools, I located "organisational cultural competency" assessment tools and experiences (e.g. Cherner, Olavarria, Young, Aubry, & Marchant, 2014; LaVeist, Relosa, & Sawaya, 2008; Lavizzo-Mourey & Mackenzie, 1996), necessitating consideration of using this approach either concurrently or sequentially, in combination with those originally proposed for individual-level use. Utilisation of such an organisational-level tool would acknowledge the broader context of learning; that is, the "real-world environment" (Kolb, 1984, pp. 34– 36) within which my learners work and learn (i.e. in the NHS). A further targeted search uncovered a considerable body of work relevant to the pedagogical aspects of cultural competence education initiatives. It was clear that any new intervention to be developed would benefit from incorporating this evidence (Campinha-Bacote, 2008). Existing teaching methods reported on included, for example, the development and use of e-learning (C2ME; Hawthorne, Prout, Kinnersley, & Houston, 2009) and simulation methods (Rutledge, Barham, Wiles, & Benjamin, 2008), and the publication of learning experiences and learning support documents (Dogra, Reitmanova, & Carter-Pokras, 2009; Kleiman, Frederickson, & Lundy, 2004; Miller & Green, 2007; Reid, 2010; Thackrah & Thompson, 2013; Torry, 2005).

#### **The Intervention: Reflecting on Our Experiences, Beliefs and Attitudes Around Intercultural Midwifery; and Two Self-assessment Tools for Learners and Teachers**

From my synthesis of the literature on cultural competence education, it became apparent that there was little consensus regarding the most effective approaches and methods (e.g. Abrams & Moio, 2009; Campinha-Bacote, 2008; Hollinsworth, 2013; Wells, 2000; Wood & Atkins, 2006). Various limitations with regard to some expected outcomes (Brach & Fraserirector, 2000) had been noted as well; for example, an impact on reducing health inequalities had not been determined. Following reflection on findings from the extensive review of evidence and discussion in the literature (referred to above), as well as discussions with colleagues, I decided my proposed interventions would take the form of a two-strand and staged approach. The first stage and strand would be to invite students (registered midwives undertaking the Continuing Professional Development module) to complete a short questionnaire in response to the question: "How can I utilise and optimise cultural proficiency/competency skills in the context of group ANC?" This question was considered directly relevant to the learning objectives of the module in which they were enrolled, and also aligned with the overall research programme we were implementing, aimed at improving equity in birthing outcomes among a "superdiverse" population.

The proposed second strand would be an invitation to academic colleagues (midwifery educators, lecturers and preceptors) to complete a short questionnaire in response to the question: "How can we utilise and optimise cultural proficiency/competency skills in the context of midwifery education?" Such a question is relevant to the overall aims and aspirations of the health services and aligned with professional responsibilities—of providing "culturally sensitive" midwifery care and requiring learning opportunities for midwives to be incorporated into existing curricula.

While these are two separate "interventions"—one inside the classroom with the student body, the other with faculty colleagues—the focus was the interface between the two groups. As expressed in my aim (outlined above), it was hoped that positive "shifts" would be evident in participant responses, both within "the classroom" (or learning context; e.g. online learning environment)—that is, between faculty and learners—and also, ultimately, a "social transformation" (Criticos, 1993) in the health care setting, where learners would "do", and ultimately "become". Personal and professional values apparent in the concepts and proposed inquiry were centred around "expression/voice/dialogue", "fairness/equity", and "reciprocity". While the interventions themselves were expected to generate "hard data", it was the reflections on the process and responses of those involved, including "self-critical" reflection (Bassey, 1995, p. 3), that were the key outcomes of interest, as these responses would provide evidence of shifting attitudes, and assist in determining the next step in the AR cycle.

#### **Recording and Evaluating the Intervention: Planned Methods**

Crucial to enhancing the validity of this AR process, and utilising writing as a reflective tool (Bolton, 2010); a reflective journal was utilised (McNiff, 2002). This enabled subsequent changes in the initial "action plan" to be logical and allowed for documentation of any justification for changes throughout the iterative process.

My plan was initially to circulate draft copies of the two tools for suggestions from colleagues, engaging them in the AR process not only as "participants" (Koshy, 2005, p. 21) but as "members of a profession" (Altrichter et al., 2008, pp. 268–278). Another rationale for including this step was the principle that colleagues have knowledge and experience that is worth exploring (Baumfield, Hall, & Wall, 2008, pp. 62–77). Assuming two suitable tools could be produced, these would then be "pretested" on one class group, meaning a process of analysis and reflection would occur to assess validity of responses.

During and following introduction of the intervention, methods of evaluation would include assessing intended, and any unintended, outcomes through feedback from learners; views and opinions of faculty and managers; and my own observations and reflections on the processes and outcomes, using the "Johns" model for structured reflection" (cited in Moon, 1999, p. 71), which has been described as "a practical stance" applicable for use in "the professions". Negative reactions from some would be expected, based on the work of others around "white fragility" (DiAngelo, 2018). Some particularly useful questions to guide this process were also found (Dick, 2002). My own observations and evaluations about the process would include making sense of informal responses from colleagues and students about the introduction of the interventions, as well as comments made during the "debriefing" following participation. Documenting experiences/reflections of my teacher colleagues at a follow-up session might be useful (Wepa, 2003), as new situations/experiences might trigger deeper reflection. This "feedback" would be used to reflect on, during and after, and to assess "organisational readiness" for proceeding to a next-stage intervention and/or refining or adjusting the original one.

#### **Actual and Expected Outcomes: Reflecting on What Happened and Why**

While the above AR process is presented as sequential and according to the steps outlined in AR methods, in actuality, the processes of reflection and information gathering were intertwined within each step. While being engaged in the steps of observation, reflection, planning and action, I did not manage to progress fully through the proposed AR cycle. Following the literature synthesis, and reflection on the proposed work brief presented to a different group of colleagues, Macintyre's model (cited by Koshy, 2005, pp. 7–8) seemed to fit where I progressed to, as he describes forming a tentative action plan and then going about refining it.

The opportunity to undertake the project in a reflective and informed way was an important learning experience. As with most innovations, I expected varying degrees of acceptance and resistance, and expected that time would be needed to develop engagement with a "critical mass" or, alternatively, that this might never be achieved. Following presentation of the preliminary evidence and rationale, I decided more consideration of "political" contexts was required, as there seemed to be anxieties and tensions among many of my colleagues around "culture" and "political correctness". Recognising some people may find their values and assumptions (as well as power) being challenged, I considered that conversations with more colleagues might be needed to encourage "gentle" movement from existing comfort zones. If the opportunity to replicate this project in another setting is ever presented, I expect to encounter different beliefs about the value of the proposed initiatives or interventions. I anticipate that adjustments will need to be made to the questionnaire, based on the responses from a pilot. The responses from senior managers and leaders, I surmise, will be indicative of several factors such as their commitment to issues of equality and fairness (in practice), their own experiences and outcomes of reflective processes, and their organisational resource constraints and competing priorities; as well as the fact that the conditions and/or facilitators for reflection (Moon, 1999, p. 176) will not always be present, or present in adequate amounts.

My aspirations for this work include improved critical reflection (Larrivee, 2000) for more "culturally responsive teaching" (Norton & Bentley, 2006). Giving "voice" (Griffiths, 1998, pp. 117–128) to the various views and classroom experiences of culturally and ethnically diverse learners will, I envisage, necessitate consideration of ethical obligations and values (Bolton, 2010) at personal and organisational levels, and prompt action on inequities; or if that action does not take place then, at the least, require justification for non-action.

It was my expectation that through engaging in this AR project, I would be empowered to plan further "interventions" in my classroom, better incorporating diversity and inclusive materials, techniques, and methods. This outcome would enrich my "authentic presence", enabling me to more effectively apply my values in practice. It would be expected that these would all enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning for my students.

#### **Conclusion**

In my view, the significance of this inquiry, an AR process with a proposed intervention, was three-fold. Firstly, regarding my own teaching practice, the initiation of this work around cultural competence in (midwifery) learning environments ensured a continuing process of self-reflection on my own skills deficits and proficiencies which would, it was envisaged, lead to ongoing learning and positive change. I would value exploration in use and application of Ghaye's (2011) "strengths-based reflective practice". Secondly, the process of engaging in AR in learning and teaching has helped me make a connection between the integration of my research practice and role, and my teacher-as-researcher role, thereby expanding my thinking around "quality research". Thirdly, becoming more aware of and intentional about my reflective processes has been enlightening and encouraging, and I feel empowered to utilise Brookfield's (1995) lenses, in a practical way, to provide "holistic" analyses.

Putting the above into practice within the various learning environments that I traverse will, no doubt, be sometimes challenging, but I hope my confidence will develop through positive reinforcement. In respect of the broader learning environments within which I taught, and continue to teach, I believe that including questions around cultural competence will open spaces for dialogue and, through that process, positive change in respect to cultural competence can be made at both organisational and individual levels. In the context of my research practice, partnerships with various colleagues and groups enabled access to a broader network. This network can make further contributions to the development of initial ideas; and some resources accessed to test, implement and evaluate the tools discussed here can possibly then be applied at scale. Paying attention to the socio-political contexts of midwifery education and research will, it is hoped, further enhance outcomes for the health services as a whole, for practising midwives, and for women and families.

**Acknowledgements** I would like to acknowledge and thank the many midwives in London with whom I worked and associated, and who shared with me their experiences, and my journey. I learned and came to understand so much from being with you, even though for only a brief time. My thanks and acknowledgement to Dr. Warren Kidd, who guided me in the AR process and provided some suggestions on a very early draft of this manuscript. You really set me on this whole pedagogical and reflective practice trajectory, a very valuable learning experience indeed. Thanks also to Ms. Olivene Yasso who generously provided comments and suggestions on the oral presentation of this work—our yarning/sharing is always enlightening.

#### **References**


**Penny Haora** has worked in various capacities in diverse settings in the Asia Pacific Region and the United Kingdom. She completed a Ph.D. associated with a multidisciplinary Thailand Health Risk Transitions Study, based at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University. Since 2001, Penny has been intermittently involved with evaluating health projects/services, mostly in remote areas of Nepal, Cambodia, and Afghanistan and recently has been evaluating a national-level midwifery education program in Bangladesh.

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## **Chapter 18 International Students in Australia, Employability and Cultural Competence**

**Tran Nguyen and Donna Hartz**

#### **Introduction**

Employability is often defined as "a set of achievements—skills, understandings and personal attributes—that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefit themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy" (Yorke, 2006, p. 8). The debate on employability has so far been dominated by the discourse of skills acquisition (see Fugate, Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004; McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005). Different terms have been used to describe the desired skills to promote employability, such as "personal skills", "transferable skills", "generic skills" or "core skills". Nonetheless, this approach has been criticised for neglecting other factors that may also contribute to employability; for example, discriminatory practices by employers (see Holmes, 2013) which affect employability, particularly for international students.

McQuaid and Lindsay (2005) shift the attention away from the skill discourse and contend that employability is not simply a measure of an individual's potential for employment, but also the social and economic context which enables this potential to be realised or otherwise. Tomlinson (2017) proposes the use of the capital concept in viewing employability and argues that employability includes (a) *human capital*, which are hard skills and technical knowledge acquired through degrees, and other career-related awareness and skills; (b) s*ocial capital* which is acquired through social relations and contacts; (c) c*ultural capital* which include cultural knowledge, behaviours, and awareness that make students attractive to employers; (d) *identity*

T. Nguyen (B)

D. Hartz Faculty of Health, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: tran.nguyen1@sydney.edu.au

*capital*, which refers to a person's sense of personal identity around targeted employment(s); and *psychological capital*, or the level of resilience and adaptability during job search.

Current research and media reports suggest that international students are facing critical challenges in securing employment in Australia, as students or postgraduation (Blackmore et al., 2014; Campbell, Boese, & Tham, 2016; Clibborn, 2015; Gribble, 2014; Murray, Blackmore, Gribble, & Hall, 2012; Nyland, Forbes-Mewett, & Marginson, 2010; Robertson, 2011, 2013). This situation raises a pertinent question about ways to enhance employability for this group of students. International students' negative experiences regarding employment opportunities adversely affect their well-being and satisfaction when studying in Australia (Blackmore et al., 2014; Gribble et al., 2015; Nyland et al., 2010). Amid an increasingly competitive environment in the international education market, this may substantially affect other international students' decision when considering whether or not to choose Australia as their learning space. Countries such as the USA, Germany, Austria, the UK and Canada, as well as Australia, are redesigning migration policy in order to facilitate better job search opportunities for international students (Hawthorne & To, 2014).

The current limited solutions to address international students' employability challenges have, to date, largely been adopted from institutional or legal approaches (Gardner, 2004; Gribble et al., 2015; Reilly, 2012). Gribble, Blackmore, & Rahimi, (2017) suggest that educational institutions in Australia can improve their employment service support for international students through different ways, such as providing better opportunities for students to attend work integrated learning programmes or enhancing the connectedness of international students to the local community. Reilly (2012) observes that currently, no higher education institutions offer a dedicated employment service to international students. In most cases, such support is offered under the form of educational seminars that provide some information for students and family members; for example, work restrictions in visas for students, or on Australian employment rights generally (including minimum wages), and the role of the Fair Work Ombudsman. Other scholars have called for more effective workplace regulations (Campbell et al., 2016; Clibborn, 2015; Reilly, 2012). Reilly (2012) suggests significant reform regarding the regulation of the work entitlements and protections of international student-workers in Australian migration and industrial law. Campbell et al. (2016) draw attention to employer labour-use strategies such as underpayment. Campbell et al. (2016), in particular, highlight the importance of investigating international students' individual agency to address employment challenges.

Research has started to highlight the importance of cultural competence, and its associated self-efficacy and interpersonal skills, in enhancing employability for students (Baumann & Vialleton, 2017; Busch, 2009; Fielden, 2007; Jones, 2013). Cultural competence, or the capacity to function effectively in cross-cultural settings, has been claimed as a core employability attribute (Baumann & Vialleton, 2017; Busch, 2009; Fielden, 2007; Jones 2013; Potgieter & Coetzee, 2013; Webb, 2005). Nilsson and Ripmeester (2016) assert that it is important to help international students to understand the cultural differences that play a role in job hunting, as well as understanding what skills employers are looking for in particular countries and sectors. However, little research has explored how cultural competence contributes to enhancing international students' employability and employment in Australia. This chapter addresses this literature lacuna by identifying dimensions of cultural competence that can enable international students to enhance employment opportunities.

In this chapter, we discuss the literature relating to international students in Australia and their employment experience. Relevant studies from other countries such as the USA and Canada are also reviewed, given the similar challenges faced by international students in those countries. This chapter does not specifically concentrate on issues related to international students' learning outcomes. Initially, the literature's key search terms included employability, international students in Australia, international students' employment experiences and cultural competence. This search also then allowed the researchers to review the related literature such as international students' connectedness and identity, or international students and immigration. A total of 68 items were reviewed: 48 peer review articles, 5 research reports, and 15 items that include books, book chapters and media articles. Of the 68 items:


Research data was analysed inductively and thematically, which allowed an identification of important emerging themes. As a starting point, the concept of cultural competence is introduced. An overview of international students and their employability challenges in Australia is then discussed. Next, the dimensions of cultural competence that can assist international students in becoming more employable when looking for work in Australia are presented.

#### **Dimensions of Cultural Competence**

Cultural competence refers to the capacity to work effectively in cross-cultural settings (Campinha-Bacote, 2016; Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989; Deardoff & Jones, 2012). It is also known under different terms such as intercultural competencies (Bennett, 2009), multicultural effectiveness (Van de Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000) and cultural intelligence (Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh, 2006). The traditional way of conceptualising cultural competence is using the framework of knowledge, attitudes and skills (Bennett, 2009; Carpenter, 2016; Deardoff & Jones 2012).

Different aspects of cultural competence can be found in the current literature (Bennett, 2009; Van de Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000). This chapter, however, will only review the specific aspects of cultural competence that we argue are essential to advance employability for international students in Australia. These include knowledge, social initiatives, flexibility, emotional stability, self-reflection, and the ability to see multiple worldviews (Ang et al., 2006; Campinha-Bacote, 2016; Olson, Bidewell, Dune, & Lessey, 2016; Sherwood & Russell-Mundine, 2017; SNAICC, 2012; Van de Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000). Knowledge is viewed as one of the most critical elements of cultural competence (Ang et al., 2006; Campinha-Bacote, 2016; Carpenter, 2016). Such knowledge can include understanding one's history, culture, customs, and beliefs as well as those of other people. Ang et al. (2006) also emphasise the importance of developing knowledge about the economic, legal and social systems in other cultures.

Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven (2000) highlight the importance of what they term as "social initiative", defined as a tendency to actively approach social situations and to take the initiative. This aspect of cultural competence also refers to individuals' capacity to build up social networks and lead social action. Emotional stability (Ang et al., 2006; Van de Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000) is also viewed as a critical dimension of cultural competence as it reflects individuals' tendency to remain calm in stressful situations, which can help them to better deal with novel and unfamiliar intercultural interactions.

Another significant part of cultural competence that has been identified in the literature is "flexibility", which refers to the capability of adjusting oneself cognitively and behaviourally to new situations (Shaffer, Harrison, Gregersen, & Black, 2006; Van de Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000). This is because flexibility allows people to actively employ different strategies to deal with cross-cultural situations in case familiar ways of handling things may no longer work (Van de Zee, Zaal, & Piekstra, 2003). Self-reflection is also viewed as an important skill to build cultural competence as it helps to develop a better understanding about oneself, one's own cultures and others' cultures (Olson et al., 2016).

Equally important in developing cultural competence is the ability to recognise different worldviews (SNAICC, 2012). "Habitus" (Bourdieu, 1990) is an important concept that can help to explain the existence of multiple worldviews. Habitus, according to Bourdieu (1990, p. 56), is "the active presence of the whole past of which it is the product", or "the second nature". Habitus can be found in one's actions, modes of appearance and bearing—posture, manners, ways of speaking—which make social life possible (Bourdieu, 1991, pp. 6–89). It plays the role of developing individuals' attitude towards society and guiding their interaction within what Bourdieu terms "the fields" (e.g. the family or the workplace). The unconscious aspect of habitus may be understood in the sense that the accumulation and acquisition of knowledge are carried out without individuals' clear awareness regarding the future use of such knowledge. Wise (2009) maintains that although Bourdieu never really dealt with ethnicity or multiethnic societies, his theory about social fields implies that ethnicities themselves can function as social fields within which hierarchies of position exist and are framed by ethnic habitus.

There have been some critiques of the cultural competence framework. For example, some argue that a focus on developing individual cultural competence can shift the attention away from critical problems such as institutional racism (Pollack, 2004; Razack & Jeffery, 2002). Harrison and Turner (2011, p. 347) observe that both the literature and policy actors tend to downplay the impact of the organisational context on service delivery; and that instead, cultural competence is presented as predominantly a product of individual behaviour. There are also concerns that cultural competence promotes "Otherness", fuels new forms of racism and reinforces existing inequalities (Harrison & Turner, 2011; Pon, 2009).

At the same time, the benefits of cultural competence have been acknowledged; for example, cultural competence is found to be effective in improving communication between health providers and patients, leading to clients' higher satisfaction, and resulting in patients' stricter adherence to medical instructions (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, & Park, 2005). Cultural competence reportedly plays an important role in the successful adjustment of international students in the host country (Wang, Heppner, Wang, & Zhu, 2014). In particular, cultural competence has been viewed as a core element of employability attributes (Baumann & Vialleton, 2017; Busch, 2009; Fielden, 2007; Jones, 2013; Potgieter & Coetzee, 2013;Webb, 2005). However, little has been known about specific ways in which cultural competence contributes to improving employability for international students in Australia.

#### **Employability Issues Concerning International Students in Australia**

The number of international students in Australia continues to increase. By February 2019, there were 582,883 students enrolled in different education sectors including higher education, vocational education and training (VET), schools or intensive English language course for overseas students. Top country contributors include China (30%), India (14%), Nepal (7%), Malaysia (4%) and Vietnam (4%) (Department of Education and Training, 2019). These statistics demonstrate that international students are predominantly from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Among the most important reasons for this growth include international students' search for not only Australian qualifications, but also relevant skills and work experience beneficial for a career either in Australia, their home country or elsewhere (Gribble et al., 2015). International students on a student visa are limited to working up to 40 hours per fortnight during the semester (Department of Home Affairs, 2019a). Postgraduate research students can work unlimited hours once they have commenced their study in Australia (Department of Home Affairs, 2019b).

International students in Australia have been found to be either struggling to find jobs that match their qualifications or having to do unskilled labour with low wage rates (Campbell et al., 2016; Clibborn, 2015; Robertson, 2011). Compared to migrants, international graduates earn much lower annual salaries and have lower job satisfaction and less frequent use of their formal qualifications in their current work (Hawthorne, 2010; Hawthorne & To, 2014). Clibborn (2015) found that 60% of international students earned less than the legal minimum wage of \$17.29 per hour. International students also have poorer employment outcomes in comparison with domestic students, especially when they search for jobs in the oversupplied fields of business and commerce, accounting, and information technology (Hawthorne & To, 2014). It is more challenging for international students qualified with masters by coursework to find jobs, compared with international students who have doctoral qualifications or bachelor degrees (Hawthorne & To, 2014, 105). International students, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, are experiencing labour market barriers on the basis of their temporary status; overall, casualised/informal and low-skilled work is the most common source of employment. While students from Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Celtic backgrounds in Australia often do jobs such as tele-sales, fundraising and "mainstream" hospitality jobs, international students tend to work more often in "ethnic" hospitality and retail businesses (Robertson, 2016).

Current research highlights three key factors that explain why international students are facing critical challenges when looking for work in Australia. Those factors include: (a) the Australian public's negative perceptions about international students that are largely constructed by media reports or findings from academic research (Blackmore et al., 2014; Nyland et al., 2009; Robertson, 2011, 2013), which have intensified following the influx of international students enrolling in the VET sectors (Robertson, 2013); (b) the government's current migration policy regarding international students; and (c) employers' unfavourable attitudes towards recruiting international students.

International students are believed to lack cultural competence, and this has been expressed both within and beyond the classroom's context. Regarding their learning experiences, international students are viewed (by teachers and other students) as having limited English skills, low motivation, poor attendance; being largely depending on rote learning; lacking analytical and critical skills; or having awkward ways in classroom participation (Birrell, 2006; Carroll & Ryan, 2005; Devos, 2003; Tran & Nyland, 2011). International students are also perceived by others as having weak cross-cultural communications skills; lack of knowledge of, and exposure to, the local labour market and workplace culture; and/or using education solely as a migration pathway (Blackmore et al., 2014; Gribble et al., 2015; Gribble & McRae, 2017; Jackson, 2017; Marginson, Nyland, Sawir, & Forbes-Mewett, 2010; Reilly, 2012; Robertson, 2011). Birrell (2006) suggests that many international students' communication capacity is well short of that required to meet Australia's higher education standards or the standards of employers of professionals. According to Gribble et al. (2015), international students are also found to lack "soft skills", as a result of many of them undervaluing the importance of developing such skills and preferring to focus on acquiring technical skills and achieving high grades. Furthermore, many international students have little knowledge about the job application process and work culture in Australia, which may differ significantly from the job-seeking approaches and work culture in their home country (Gribble et al., 2015).

Another key factor explaining international students' poor employment outcomes is the Australian Government's current migration policies that no longer favour the link between education and migration (Nyland et al., 2010; Robertson, 2011). In the 1990s, the Australian migration policy was designed to encourage fee-paying international students to apply for permanent residency to fill specific shortages in targeted professions. However, since 2010, the Australian Government has no longer supported such policy and instead has sought to sever the education-migration nexus through different measures, such as requiring employers' sponsorship for graduates and imposing restrictions upon post-study work visas (Gribble & Blackmore, 2012). Coupled with the current difficult global economic environment conditions, the Australian public's negative perceptions about international students have been argued to be a contributing factor in the development of these migration policies (Robertson, 2011).

Employers in Australia also tend to show a lack of enthusiasm in recruiting international students. In addition to sharing the public's negative perceptions about international students regarding students' communication skills and cultural fit, employers also have doubts about students' long-term work commitment versus the cost of hiring and training those students which may be an unwarranted investment. Additionally, employers may lack appreciation or understanding about international students' international experience, and possibly discriminate against students because of their non-English names (Blackmore et al., 2014; Devos, 2003; Gribble & McRae, 2017). Research from the USA and Canada also reflects similar perceptions of employers about international students (Bond, Areepattamannil, Brathwaite-Sturgeon, Hayle, & Malekan, 2007; McFadden & Seedorff, 2017; Nunes & Arthur, 2013). McFadden and Seedorff (2017) point further to employers' challenges; for example, the cost of time and paperwork required to hire international students who would require employment visa sponsorship.

In the following sections of this chapter, we discuss different dimensions of cultural competence that we argue are essential to enhance international students' employability in Australia.

#### **Advancing Employability Through Knowledge Development**

Knowledge is an important dimension of cultural competence that is useful to enable international students to improve their employment opportunities in Australia. It is essential that international students develop knowledge about employment rules, regulations and restrictions pertaining to international workers in the host country, to advance employability (Blackmore et al., 2014; Gribble & McRae, 2017; Sangganijanavanich, Lenz, & Cavazos, 2011). Without such knowledge, international students may find it challenging to fully understand workplace agreements, negotiate fair conditions of work with their employers, or stand up to their employers when unreasonable requests are made of them during their employment (Reilly, 2012). Nyland et al. (2009) emphasise that many international students have not been adequately informed of their labour rights. According to Sangganijanavanich et al. (2011), international students' career options and decisions were affected by their limited knowledge of the rules and regulations around their employment, which in turn created anxiety for the students.

Equally critical is to acquire pre-entry information about the Australian labour market and the global graduate market (Gribble et al., 2015), as this enables international students to develop a realistic understanding of employment opportunities in the country prior to and post-graduation. Many international students have unrealistic expectations of the level of effort required to find employment after graduating, which may include gaining work experience, learning how to articulate their knowledge, skills and experience to prospective employers, and gradually developing their employability (Gribble et al., 2015). Also important is their understanding of the notion of employability in the Australian context, which may be different in other countries and cultures; for example, in Australia, more focus is placed upon developing non-technical skills and gaining relevant work experience, rather than students restricting themselves to the discipline content (Jackson, 2017). This will help international students to ensure they have some practical experience when searching for jobs in Australia.

It is also essential for international students to build knowledge about the Australian workplace culture as this will demonstrate to prospective employers that they can integrate well into their workplace. This cultural competence capability has become more significant with the increasing emphasis on the cultural fit of job applicants (Rivera, 2012). Jackson (2017) illuminates international students' difficulties in adjusting to the Australian work setting during their study-integrated learning; for example, the necessity of grasping the code of conduct, expectations of employers, established workplace processes, hierarchical structure in the area they are situated, business etiquette, and who they are supposed to ask about what. Sangganijanavanich et al. (2011) contend that a lack of familiarity with the US culture was likely to impede international students' ability to compete with their domestic counterparts. These differences were present throughout the job search process and most obvious during job interviews. International students reported struggling with different communication styles and behaviours that may influence their chance of employment, such as non-verbal communication (e.g. how to conduct oneself during an interview, and what are culturally appropriate and accepted behaviours) and verbal communication (e.g. what to share and how much information to share).

Another useful strategy for international students is to build more in-depth knowledge about the wider Australian society as well as other cultures, given the increasing cultural diversity in the Australian workplace. This knowledge is necessary because it can allow international students to integrate more successfully and avoid crosscultural tensions. Multiple factors contribute to international students' "cultural enclosure" when studying in Australia. International students, especially those from China or Vietnam, tend to remain in their comfort zones (e.g. mixing with others from their country) instead of actively mixing with other cultures and/or local students, often because of language barriers (Wearing, Le, Wilson, & Arambewela, 2015; Xiao & Petraki, 2007). Students who want to engage more with local people and students face a couple of barriers; for example, studying in a campus where there are a large number of international students minimises their opportunity to interact with local students (Wearing et al., 2015). Cross-cultural interactions between international students and others are further inhibited by international students' perceptions of domestic students' actions and attitudes as showing superiority towards them (Tran & Pham, 2016). Additionally, many international students tend to combine work and study and spend minimal time on campus; or they have established friendship groups (with other international students) and, therefore, are not motivated to expand their networks to include domestic students (Gribble et al., 2015). International students' accommodation choices can also minimise their cross-cultural interactions, as due to the limited and costly campus accommodation they prefer to share accommodation with other international students, who are often from the same language group (Gribble at al., 2015). International students from some countries (such as China) are also found to have limited knowledge about the values, common faiths or political views held by students from other countries, and this minimises the cross-cultural communication skills of those groups of students (Xiao & Petraki, 2007).

Stronger interpersonal connections between international students and domestic students or community members in Australia can be established through living in "homestay" accommodations (Gribble, Blackmore, & Rahimi, 2015). Such connections can allow international students to not only have more exposure to the host country's culture, but also acquire more information about the complexities and subtle nuances of the country's cultural context (Wang et al., 2014). Active participation in the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programme is another effective option. Gribble and McRae (2017) highlight multiple benefits of the WIL programme for international students, in both Australia and Canada, that include exposure to local work culture (including the workplace culture) and everyday cross-cultural interactions with colleagues. The programme also helps international students become familiar with the country's policy, regulations and procedures; and be exposed to real-world scenarios rather than simply receiving instruction, such as having the opportunity to experience how to communicate with culturally diverse clients.

Last but not least in regard to the knowledge aspect of cultural competence is the necessity for international students to build their proficiency in English. The focus on improving these students' English proficiency to boost their employment opportunities is not new (Blackmore et al., 2014; Gribble et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2014; Huang, 2016), as doing so leads to better job opportunities for the students. Developing English proficiency also enables international students to better comprehend their workplace agreements, negotiate fair work conditions with employers, or deal effectively with employers' unreasonable requests (Reilly, 2012). Yet, the question is how international students can achieve this aim, in light of the number of barriers they are facing while living and studying in Australia. For the many international students who continue to live, study and work in their native language, and have little trouble in communicating with friends and families in their home countries, thanks to social media (Gribble et al., 2015), there may be few opportunities to improve their English skills. Furthermore, it was found that students with limited English proficiency are less likely to engage with native speakers, find part-time work that involves speaking English, join clubs, or participate in extra-curricular activities, which are the forms of social capital employers are seeking in applicants (Blackmore et al., 2014). One strategy that international students can employ to improve their English skills is finding more opportunities to hang out with local students or choosing a mixed class of both international and local students (Tran & Pham, 2016).

In particular, Gribble et al. (2017) suggest that homestay arrangements can be a good strategy as it allows international students to live with Australian families and have some shared activities together, such as meals or family outings. International students choosing homestay arrangements often found that this experience had been instrumental in developing their English proficiency. The homestay arrangement, as Gribble et al. (2017) argue, is a useful way to enhance social integration into the broader host community, which is linked to a successful overseas sojourn for international students.

#### **Enhancing Employability Through Social Initiatives, Flexibility, Recognition of Multiple Worldviews and Emotional Stability**

In the case of international students, the ability to carry out social initiatives, which is an important dimension of cultural competence, is pertinent to enhancing employment opportunities in Australia. One such social initiative is to "perform migrancy", as Robertson (2016) conceptualises, which can help to ease employers' concerns about international students' long-term work commitment in Australia (Gribble & McRae, 2017; McFadden & Seedorff, 2017). According to Robertson, "performing migrancy" refers to international students' efforts to establish themselves as "true" migrants instead of maintaining the sojourner identities that have often been used to view international students. In order to do this, international students seek to display not only the cultural competencies required for professional skilled work, but also the long-term commitment to living and working in Australia. This social initiative can be performed in two directions. On the one hand, international students seek to develop particular habits and practices in the workplace, both cultural competencies and cultural practices, to "prove" their worth as a worker and demonstrate their commitment to professionalism and a permanent stay. On the other hand, they also attempt to distance themselves from stereotypes of student-workers, or from the perceived "masses" of fellow students within the urban environment who are willing to do unskilled work, and from framings of students as "backdoor"—therefore, undesirable—migrants (Robertson 2013). Robertson (2013) discusses the case of an Indian business graduate who described himself as different from other international students because, according to him, those students are not serious about study and are using their student visas to do unskilled work. Blaming those student-workers as "ruining it for everybody", this Indian graduate wanted to show his commitment to a permanent stay in Australia as a working professional who wanted "to stay here and enrich this country, not work some rubbish job" (Robertson, 2013, pp. 2282–2283).

Demonstrating commitment to professionalism should be viewed as another critical social initiative that international students can adopt to boost their employment opportunities in Australia. Gribble and McRae (2017) point out that participating in the WIL programme gives international students a good opportunity to demonstrate to prospective employers that they are competent and can be trusted to commit to the workplace. Blackmore, Gribble, & Rahimi's study (2015) details how a female international Chinese student earned the job she wanted in Australia, as follows. She did multiple menial jobs during her first few years of study in Australia to pay her bills; for example, working in a bakery, or selling credit cards in a shopping centre. Being aware of the importance of obtaining discipline-specific work experience in order to be employable in Australia, and of the employment challenges caused by her visa status, the student decided to spend her summer holidays completing a threemonth internship with an international financial credit rating company in China. This internship allowed her to then secure a position as a consultant with a multinational media firm in Australia and enabled her to expand her networks to include the big accounting company that was her dream workplace. This student's strategy can be viewed as a critical social initiative in boosting her employment prospects. She worked closely with the manager at the big accounting company, spending the weekends at the company as if she was working there. These efforts demonstrated her ability to establish effective cross-cultural relationships and her strong commitment to professionalism. Eventually, she was employed at the company after only an informal interview because the people there had already recognised her proactive attitudes and activities.

To boost employability, international students also need to demonstrate some other important aspects of cultural competence: flexibility (Shaffer et al., 2006; Van de Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000) and the ability to recognise different worldviews (SNAICC, 2012). According to Sangganijanavanich et al. (2011), international students may encounter job search difficulties if they continue to maintain their ethnic habitus in such a way that is incompatible with the new workplace culture. For example, Chinese students can find it challenging to highlight their own achievements during the job interview in the USA because back in their home country, it is considered as being boastful and offensive to talk in that manner. Maintaining this ethnic habitus in the job interview may lead the interviewers to judge that these students are not confident and have low self-esteem, as US interviewers often highly value applicants' self-confidence and the can-do attitudes (Leri, 2009). Adjusting one's ethnic habitus can lead to feelings of discomfort, incongruence and awkwardness (Sangganijanavanich et al., 2011); however, being able to do this in a relaxing manner can improve students' chances of employment. As Robertson's study (2016) highlights, it is important to cultivate the performance of a desirable, culturally competent professional worker through improvement not only of their English proficiency, but also of the way they behave and present themselves in the Australian workplace.

Emotional stability is one dimension of cultural competence that can enable international students to enhance employability when searching for work in Australia. Both the literature and media have reported cases of international students experiencing shock, or feeling ashamed, when they found out that they had little choice but to perform low-level types of jobs in Australia (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2017; Nyland et al., 2009). Blackmore et al. (2014) observe that international graduates often have high expectations of post-study employment; for example, in their study, many international accounting students aimed to work for large multinational firms, and many international nursing students aimed to work in major metropolitan hospitals. Because those very high expectations can lead international students to be disappointed, the authors suggest that looking for multiple pathways and working for a smaller firm or a regional hospital should be considered, as they can lead to other opportunities later. On the other hand, Nyland et al. (2009) found that some international students were more aware of what their circumstances in Australia would be, and they were more accepting and less ashamed of the lowering of their employment status. For instance, an Indian student commented that "back home I am an officer …. I'm a magistrate there, so I have a designation and have another status there, and here I'm a student without any money. It's totally different" (Nyland et al., 2009, pp. 11–12). As the authors pointed out, this student appeared more accepting about shifting from a position of power and influence to being a student without money. The fact that he seems less surprised than some others about his new status gives the impression that his experience was in line with his expectations and demonstrates his emotional stability in adjusting himself to the new situation in Australia.

#### **Becoming More Employable Through Self-reflection**

Self-reflection (Olson et al., 2016) is a salient dimension of cultural competence that international students can adopt to become more employable in Australia. In order to enhance employment opportunities, it is essential for international students to be aware of their strengths and promote them during the job search process. These include not only personal advantages (e.g. appearance or linguistic skills), but also cultural strengths (e.g. common positive perceptions about their own cultures, such as a strong work ethic). Robertson (2016) introduces what she terms as "performing ethnicity" as a strategy for international students to become more employable, based on their ethnic appearance. For her, "performing ethnicity" occurs when students are employed at unskilled or low-skilled labour levels within industries of cosmopolitan consumption like the restaurant business (see also Campbell et al., 2016). Robertson (2016) argues that ethnicity becomes an important source for "non-white" students to find employment in Australia because of their capacity to "pass" as particular ethnicities for the gaze of the cosmopolitan Western consumer. For example, a popular Turkish restaurant hired fair-skinned Indian and Nepalese female international students as staff because they looked Turkish to Western customers; and some Korean-owned restaurants instructed Korean student-workers to pretend to customers that they were Japanese (Robertson, 2016). However, it should be noted that poor pay is common for employees in ethnic cafés or restaurants (Campbell et al., 2016; Clibborn, 2015).

International students should also closely examine their other strengths to be able to demonstrate the significant benefits that they can offer employers, when competing with domestic candidates for jobs in Australia. Positive perceptions about international students often fall on their position as "a resource for foreign relations as a network of graduates", especially "quality students from the premium end of markets" who will "provide more influential diplomatic and business ties" (Koehne, 2006, p. 246). International students are also perceived to be hard working and less likely to quit if they confront challenges (Gribble et al., 2015). Knowledge of language and culture in key markets is another advantage (Gribble et al., 2015). Sangganijanavanich et al. (2011) reveal that during the job search process, international students in the US tended to discover the personal uniqueness that distinguished them from their domestic counterparts; for example, their cultural diversity and multilingual ability. Students believed that they brought cultural diversity to their potential US employers by offering unique perspectives and approaches from a cross-cultural point of view, and the ability to better comprehend global trends and international issues. They agreed that their multilingual ability had helped them to be competitive in the job market and because of this ability, they often searched for positions in companies with a mission and vision focused on the global economy or international markets. Gribble and McRae (2017) also highlight benefits that Asian international students can offer; for instance, knowledge of Asian culture and business practices, and personal relationships and connections with relevance to Asia.

#### **Conclusion**

This chapter identifies the dimensions of cultural competence that can enable international students to enhance employability when looking for work in Australia. These dimensions include knowledge, social initiatives, flexibility, the ability to recognise multiple worldviews, emotional stability and self-reflection. While international students' employment outcomes certainly depend on multiple factors, the importance of developing international students' cultural competence to promote employability should be emphasised.

Dimensions of cultural competence as identified in this chapter reflect Tomlinson's (2017) conceptualisation of employability through the *capital* lens. Specifically, those dimensions can assist international students to build necessary forms of capital that are necessary to build employability. Cultural competence allows international students to develop *social capital* such as social relations with native speakers that benefits their job search process. Cultural competence also assists international students to acquire *cultural capital* such as cultural knowledge, behaviours and awareness that make them more attractive to employers. Self-reflection about their cultural backgrounds and strengths also enable international students to develop *identity capital* that make them more outstanding among other job applicants in Australia. At the same time, the development of emotional stability and flexibility during the job search process enhances international students' *psychological capital* that is beneficial for promoting employability. Eventually, successful performance of the different dimensions of cultural competence can help international students to draw more effective and realistic job search strategies, become more resilient in the process and, in particular, present themselves as strong and suitable candidates for jobs in Australia. This research emphasises the necessity for educational institutions in Australia to develop cultural competence training for international students that aims to promote employability. At the same time, the responsibility also rests with international students to make necessary efforts to become culturally competent, as this will effectively benefit their job search process in Australia.

#### **References**


**Tran Nguyen** is Associate Lecturer at the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. She obtained a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Macquarie University. Tran's research interests include international migration, inter-ethnic relations, cultural competence, employment services, and organisational studies**.**

**Donna Hartz** identifies as a descendant of her grandmother's people, the Kamillaroi nation. She is a midwife and nurse with 34 years' experience as a clinician, educator, lecturer, manager, consultant, and researcher. During this time, she has worked at a variety of tertiary and metropolitan health services and universities within New South Wales. Donna is currently an Associate Professor in Midwifery at Charles Darwin University.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

## **Part V Conclusion**

## **Chapter 19 Future Directions: Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector**

**Jack Frawley, Gabrielle Russell, and Juanita Sherwood**

#### **Introduction**

In one sense or another, the chapters in this book have all acknowledged that cultural competence is a set of behaviours, attitudes and/or policies that come together in the higher education sector or among professional and academic staff, and students enabling them to operate efficiently in intercultural contexts (Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989). There is also acknowledgement that in the Australian context, cultural competence is built on an Indigenous foundation that includes the three domains of knowing, doing and being, where knowing is about knowing and understanding history, culture, customs and beliefs; doing is culturally appropriate action and behaviour; and being is about awareness, authenticity and openness to examining own values and beliefs (Martin, 2003). Engagement in a culturally competent setting requires values-driven participation, which has a moral dimension with a focus on and commitment to ethics, moral purpose, values and beliefs, the appreciation of diversity and the establishment of authentic relationships.

Universities Australia (UA), the peak body representing Australian universities, developed the Indigenous Cultural Competency project as a key source of guidance and direction in informing the case for cultural competence within the Australian higher education sector. UA recommends making cultural competence in universities all encompassing, including in research practice, teaching and learning methodologies, and employment practices, and sees the role of universities as agents of change, committed to a social justice agenda. As a result, education is seen as the foundation for the practice of self-determination and achievement of social justice and Indigenous equality (UA, 2011).

J. Sherwood

Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

J. Frawley (B) · G. Russell

National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia e-mail: Jack.Frawley@sydney.edu.au

J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2\_19

University Australia's project on cultural competence aimed to provide the Australian higher education sector with a best practice structure that included the theoretical and practical instruments needed to incorporate Indigenous cultural competence at a systems level (UA, 2011). The project identified five themes governance and management; teaching and learning; Indigenous research; human resources; community engagement—and these themes are used to provide some thoughts about future directions.

#### **Governance and Management**

University governance systems that have significant participation of Indigenous employees in decision-making in at least their vertical framework have a much better opportunity of success in all fields of Indigenous activities, including student results (UA, 2011). For this, the vision of change to be realised within the academy requires leadership that is geared towards a socially just and equitable system. This creates an opportunity for further research that has a focus on an audit of existing leadership policies, strategies and initiatives, and examples of best practice across the higher education sector from which best practice principles can be distilled. For Indigenous leaders working at the governance and management levels, research that explores the challenges of merging workplace and Indigenous expectations may provide valuable insights (Doyle & Hungerford, this volume).

#### **Teaching and Learning**

It would be difficult to argue from a historical standpoint that the teaching on Australian Indigenous studies and the including of Indigenous knowledges (IKs) and perspective in higher education curriculum has been adequately addressed, although in more recent times there has been a shift towards addressing this imbalance. The Review of Australian Higher Education stated that:

Indigenous involvement in higher education is not only about student participation and the employment of Indigenous staff. It is also about what is valued as knowledge in the academy. Indigenous students and staff have unique knowledge and understandings which must be brought into the curriculum for all students and must inform research and scholarship. (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008, p. 32)

This also calls for a culturally responsive pedagogy (Willsher and Oldfield, this volume) that develops appropriate content and learning resources, teaching strategies and assessment methods, for not just Indigenous students but all students, to ensure academic development and engagement with tasks. In essence, there is an ongoing requirement for the co-generation of knowledge that challenges the academy to be more inclusive of intercultural perspectives within and across disciplines. The aim here is to produce graduates who are invested with sophisticated understanding, abilities and characteristics of cultural competence through achieving embedded formal graduate qualities.

#### **Indigenous Research**

Research that is culturally responsive relies on establishing processes to guarantee that the research is culturally secure and beneficial to Indigenous people and the community from which the study is taken (UA, 2011). This calls on the higher education sector to develop processes, rules and procedures with Indigenous staff, students and communities to guarantee that research is culturally and methodologically sound. Culturally competent research depends on an organisational setting that embraces Indigenous knowledges and practice in creative and more inclusive ways. At a university level, a whole-of-institution approach should include a commitment to revise and assess student and staff capacity to implement culturally competent research, with a focus on engaging communities as co-partners in the research enterprise. This localised model of research is suited to the context and community of interest and, some argue, is a methodologically sound approach (Doyle and Hungerford, this volume).

#### **Human Resources**

Indigenous people are under-represented at all levels as staff of Australian universities. This under-representation gives an adverse signal to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and staff about Indigenous people's place in higher education. It also undermines other approaches directed at engaging Indigenous people and their communities in the higher education sector (UA, 2011). Smith and Robertson (this volume) found in their research that recruitment, retention and professional advancement were all significant variables in the development and maintenance of qualified Indigenous higher education staff across all sectors of the university and that employment of Indigenous people in leadership and management positions was important.

Nguyen and Hartz (this volume) extend the argument for cultural competence to the employability of international students and identify the aspects of cultural competence that can allow global learners to improve their employability when searching for job in Australia. These aspects include understanding, social projects, flexibility, the capacity to recognise various worldviews, emotional stability and self-reflection.

From a human resources perspective, in the context of employment and employability, there is a need for ongoing work in developing induction processes which include cultural competence training for all new staff.

#### **Community Engagement**

Significant involvement with Indigenous groups and organisations outside the university should be the main pathway for constructing Indigenous cultural competence within the higher education sector that encompasses governance and management, teaching and learning, research and human resources. Universities also have a significant part to play in disseminating cultural competence practices and attitudes towards non-Indigenous groups (UA, 2011). At the heart of engagement is partnerships:

Engagement requires partnerships. Equitable partnership approaches involve individuals, community members, organisational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of community engagement. Partners contribute their expertise and share responsibilities and ownership to increase understanding and incorporate the knowledge gained with the engagement. Partnership approaches build on strengths and resources within the community; facilitate collaborative, equitable involvement of all partners; integrate knowledge and action for the mutual benefit of all partners; and disseminate program findings and knowledge gained to all. (Frawley, Larkin, & Smith, 2017, p. 8)

Engagement also requires conversations where there is constant change and fluidity, providing room for fresh understanding and culture formations constructed around confidence, reciprocity, appreciation and regard (Davis, this volume). UA (2011) recommends that mechanisms, cultural protocols and codes of conduct need to be established to provide the higher education sector with a guide for engagement with Indigenous people, communities and organisations.

#### **Conclusion**

Developing cultural competence in higher education needs extensive organisational policies that place universities as agents of change and transformation. This book has drawn together academics, policy-makers, practitioners and professionals who have provided perspectives, understandings and knowledge of strategies and practices related to cultural competence in higher education. The overarching theme throughout the book has been cultural competence and its interaction with the higher education sector through a range of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, and descriptions of applied strategies and practice. While there seems to be a consensus that cultural competence as a concept eludes a unifying definition, there is general agreement that cultural competence is a journey which is ambitious, cumulative and lifelong. This book represents a map of sorts—not a static map, but one that is in a state of change as new features are added and modifications made. And as a map, it will assist with navigation and direction.

19 Future Directions: Cultural Competence and the Higher … 355

#### **References**


**Jack Frawley** has a national and international profile as researcher, writer, and educator in the areas of intercultural studies, education, history, leadership studies, and the arts. He has worked extensively as a consultant for program evaluation, research, and education-related projects, in Australian Aboriginal communities as well as in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia.

**Gabrielle Russell** is the Acting Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney. Her diverse experience has been gained working in non-government organisations, politics, business, church organisations, and higher education. She is particularly interested in how to develop cultural competence from a non-Indigenous perspective and, in particular, how to facilitate a deeper understanding of transformative ways to learn and work together. Gabrielle's teaching and research interests include race and racism, critical pedagogies, service learning, and cultural competence.

**Juanita Sherwood** is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales. She has over 25 years of experience in Indigenous health and education, community-based research methodologies, and decolonisation strategies that improve health and healing outcomes for Indigenous people. She is currently the Associate Dean (Indigenous) for the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

### **Index**

#### **A**

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Framework, 69, 71 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competence, 32 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework, 281 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework, 280 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council, 118 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, 53 Aboriginal Cultural Competence Matrix, 282 Acheson, K., 107, 109 Action Research (AR) framework and method, 312 participatory, 73, 262, 311, 315 processes, 262 Acton, R., 7, 71, 73, 74 AGEN3008, 266–268 Aggregate profile by country of origin, 93, 98, 101 by ethnicity, 93, 100 by gender, 93, 95 Ahmed, S., 31 Aikenhead, G. S., 259–261, 271 Ampt, P., 269 ANC model. *See* antenatal care (ANC) Anderson, B., 46, 52–54 Antenatal Care (ANC), 310, 311, 320 Anti-racist alliances, 53 AR. *See* action research (AR) Assess, Plan, Implement and Evaluate (APIE), 284 Australian academy of science, 222

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), 60 Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHRPA), 169 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 181 Australian Medical Association (AMA), 177

#### **B**

Background-domain contrast, 90, 92, 95, 100, 102 Barahona, S., 244 Bargallie, D., 295, 299, 301 Basic closedness, 86 Battiste, M., 35, 73, 257 Beachum, F., 61 Beg, G., 243 Behrendt, L., 33, 71, 117, 236, 296, 302 Behrendt Review. *See* Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Bell, A., 8, 234, 236, 238 Bell, T., 8, 234, 236, 238 Best practice strategies, 70 Betancourt, J. R., 59, 91, 283, 309, 317, 318, 335 Bhabha, Homi K., 24, 27 Bloom, B. S., 283 Bolden, R., 138, 140, 148, 149 Bone, E., 255 Both Ways, 72, 202, 203, 206, 261 Brough, M., 49 Bunda, T., 126, 127

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 J. Frawley et al. (eds.), *Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector*, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5362-2

#### **C**

CampusFlora. *See* CampusFlora app Campus Flora app, 220, 222–225, 227, 268 Canberra Aboriginal Tent Embassy, 47 Carrithers, M., 23 Cary, L. J., 27 Casrnir, F. L., 26 CATSINaM. *See* Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives Central Queensland University (CQU) Office of Indigenous Engagement (OIE), 296 Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), 283, 299 Change agent, 62, 65, 67 Chau Chak Wing Museum, 227 Closing the Gap in a Generation report, 277 Clutton, C. S., 3, 4 Collaborative Community Participatory Action Research method, 73 Collins, A., 124, 202 Colonial engagement contact zone, 27 Commonwealth of Australia (CoA) 2016 Health Framework, 281 2017 Health Framework, 281 Communities of practice, 67, 68 Community engagement, 7, 68, 244, 245, 262, 269, 280, 352, 354 Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), 159, 160, 169 Cook-Sather, Professor A., 67, 237, 238, 240 Corntassel, J., 38 Coulson, Dr S., 246 Cowan, A., 50 Critical consciousness, 64, 206 Critical literacy, 199 Critical Race Theory (CRT) transformative agenda, 200, 201, 207 Critical reflexivity, 71, 262 Critical self-reflection, 31, 37, 40, 43, 44, 63, 65, 67, 177, 180, 181, 270, 318 Critical theory definition, 63 Critical thinking, 6, 32, 35, 181, 260, 265, 287, 298, 302, 304 Cross, R., 3, 15, 22, 23, 44, 256, 258, 264, 265, 333, 351 Cross, T.L., 3, 15, 22, 23, 44, 256, 258, 264, 265, 282, 333, 351 CRT.*See* critical race theory (CRT)

Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self Summit Series, 109 Cultural awareness, 35, 161, 169, 173, 182, 184, 198, 199, 203, 204, 207, 208, 245, 267, 282, 284, 285, 287, 295, 304 Cultural-beingness, 85, 86 Cultural capability, 4, 60, 69, 75, 204, 281, 295 Cultural competence best practice, 73 capabilities, 160, 338 competent definition, 3, 6, 9, 15, 161, 235, 240, 245, 269, 295 critical self-reflection, 31, 37, 40, 43, 45, 64, 270, 318 cultural definition, 3, 6 cultural diversity, 24, 25, 162 definition, 3, 6, 9, 15, 161, 235, 240, 245, 269, 295, 354 flexibility, 341, 344 in healthcare, 184, 278, 281, 282, 287 methodologies, 69, 71 philosophy, 4, 23, 43, 44, 52, 55, 59, 256 practice, 59, 68, 104, 106, 123, 354 praxis, 4, 6, 37, 39, 43, 44, 52, 55, 59, 60, 74, 76, 159, 172 processual approach, 23 training courses, 295, 304 transcultural communication, 25, 27 Cultural identity language, 16, 24, 215 Culturally competent leadership applied critical leadership, 60, 61, 65 discourse, 60, 61, 75 initiatives, 60, 268, 270, 279 theory, 60, 61, 63, 69, 75 transformative leadership, 60, 62, 66 Culturally competent leadership program, The, 5 Culturally competent research, 126, 353 Cultural safety five principles, 161 safe space, 171 training, 169, 173, 304 Cultural sensitivity, 62, 84, 161, 182, 184, 295, 317 Culture innovation, 19 process-oriented, 22 Culture House, 184, 185

Curriculum Framework, The. *See* Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework

#### **D**

Dantley, M. E., 61, 68 Davis, M., 26 Davison, J., 215 Dawes, W., 218, 219, 265 Decile profile, 93, 95, 96, 104 Decolonial education, 72 Decolonisation pedagogy, 72 Decolonising agenda, 37, 161 Dei, S., 37 Dening, G., 18, 20 Dhaga Ngiyahni Ngan.Girra exhibition, 227 DiAngelo, R., 34, 300, 301, 321 Dirlik, A., 17 Divergent determinism, 86 Doyle, Aunty Kerrie, 8 7Ds of change, 109

#### **E**

Eagleton, T., 17, 20, 22, 23 Ecological resonance, 86, 91, 93, 97, 98, 100 Eddo-Lodge, R., 34, 35 Emotional attunement, 85, 86, 88, 91, 93, 97, 98, 101, 103, 106 Emotional intelligence, 93, 105, 138–140 Employability definition, 331 English proficiency, 340, 342 human capital, 331 identity capital, 332, 344 international students, 331–335, 337, 340–344, 353 knowledge development, 337 migration policies, 332 psychological capital, 332, 344 social capital, 331, 340, 343 Eora Nation, 45, 46 Equilintegration (EI) model framework, 88 Essentialism, 16, 20 Eurocentric concepts, 20 Extreme Groups Approach (EGA), 91, 103 Eymont, R., 242

#### **F**

Felten, P., 67 First Nations Intellectual Properties, 226 First Nations peoples, 3, 33, 44, 46, 48, 70, 162, 167, 225 First peoples, 19, 160, 168 Forum BEVI project Full Scale score, 88–90, 93, 95, 102, 104 scales, 89, 90 seven domains, 90 Franks, T., 183–185 Frawley, J., 8, 62, 71, 72, 125, 354 Fredericks, Professor B., 8, 140, 178, 296, 303, 304 Freire, P., 66, 72, 198, 203, 206 Frontier violence, 47, 50, 51

#### **G**

Gadigal Country, 221, 226 Gadigal people, 216, 218, 221, 223, 225, 227 GARABARA, 228 Geertz, C., 18, 20 Gilbert, S., 128, 132 Global citizenship education, 87 Global identity development, 88, 89 Gribble, C., 332, 339, 340 Guerra, P. L., 64, 68 *Guiding Principles for Developing Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities*, 7, 8, 160, 279

#### **H**

Haora, P., 309 Hard structure, 86 Hartman, J., 241 Hartz, D., 331 Health Framework, The. *See* Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Health Performance Framework Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), 241, 249 History Wars, 51 Holt, L., 124, 128 Homelands movement, 202 Hooks, b., 39, 303 Hubble, T., 243 Human rights, 5, 20, 33, 44, 45, 50, 62, 70, 71, 173, 202, 216, 217, 282 Hungerford, C., 352, 353

#### **I**

Identity diffusion, 86, 88, 92, 93, 95, 97, 98, 101, 103, 104, 109 Imagined community, 52, 54 Indigenisation, 52, 118, 296 Indigenist aspirational model, 147, 150, 151 Indigenist leadership model, 137–139, 150 Indigenous Advancement Strategy Evaluation Framework, 118 Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) definition, 257 Indigenous Commissioner, 118 Indigenous community knowledge, 68 Indigenous Cultural Competency Framework, 119, 123, 133 *Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities Best Practice Framework*, 255 Indigenous Cultural Competency project, 5, 351 Indigenous culture knowing, being and doing, 7, 44, 189 Indigenous disadvantage, 43, 46, 52, 55 Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, 118 Indigenous Knowledges (IKs), 5–7, 9, 37, 44, 51, 71–74, 118, 122, 123, 126, 132, 166, 178, 186, 189, 190, 217, 223, 227, 235, 243, 247, 256–270, 280, 286, 352, 353 Indigenous knowledge systems. *See* Indigenous Knowledges (IKs) Indigenous languages, 121, 202, 203, 205, 207, 216, 219, 220, 225–229, 261, 265 Indigenous lens, 123, 128, 133, 288 Indigenous nursing philosophy, 166 Indigenous relational pedagogy, 73 Indigenous scholar definition, 47, 121, 123, 130, 131, 133, 184, 189 Indigenous self-determination, 43, 45, 50, 54, 184 Indigenous sovereignty, 7, 43, 45–55, 206, 297 Indigenous standpoint theory, 72 Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP), 125, 127 Institute of International Education, 83 Institutionalisation, 39 Intercultural competence, 88, 105 Interculturalism, 62, 72, 208 *Intercultural Understanding in Human Society and its Environment*, 241 International Beliefs and Values Institute, 109

#### **J**

Jean-Marie, G., 64 Johnson, C., 177

#### **K**

Kanyini. *See* mindfulness Kirmayer, L., 24, 271 Know-do gap, 133

#### **L**

Leadership plasticity, 149 Leung, N., 244 Lifelong learning, 65, 67 López, A.E., 61, 63, 64, 67

#### **M**

Macleay Museum, 225, 226 Mansfield, K. C., 64 Martin, G., 72 Marxian frame of interpretation, 22 McDonnell, M. A., 244 Metacognition, 205, 207 Migliorino, P., 70 Mindfulness, 64, 147, 149–151, 256 Miralles, J., 70 Moreton-Robinson, A., 46, 47, 125, 147, 303 Morgan, S., 209 Moses, Y.T., 59, 61 Motivational Gravity Grid, 141, 142 Muecke, S., 20 Multi-levelled leadership, 59 Mutualism framework mutualist view, 23

#### **N**

Nakata, M., 7, 20, 71, 72, 74, 75, 139, 178, 239, 259–261 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers Association, 186 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (NATSIHEC), 121, 126, 132 National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, 186 National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party (NAHSWP), 186

*National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in*

*Australian Universities*, 70, 122, 127, 209, 298 National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) NCCC 2018 conference, 269, 270 National Council of Elders, 124 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), 279 National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN), 121, 126 Naturalisation Act, 46 NCCC. *See* National Centre for Cultural Competence Negative life events, 86, 101, 107 Nguyen, T., 342, 353 Nielsen, A.-M., 186 Ni, J., 246 NIRAKN. *See* National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network Nurses and Midwives Code of Conduct, 182 Nurses Code of Conduct. *See* Nurses and Midwives Code of Conduct Nursing Council of New Zealand, 161

#### **O**

Ober, R., 62, 202 Oldfield, J., 198, 205 *On Stony Ground*, 124 Ontological pluralism, 74 2018 Open Doors Report, 83 Organisational culture, 6, 33, 65, 70, 311 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment Global Competence Framework, 197

#### **P**

Pait, K., 83 Parent, A., 6 Patyegarang, 218–220, 222–225, 265, 269 Patyegarang trail, 223 Payne, M., 49 Pazey, B. L., 64, 68 Pecci, A., 3 Perkins, C., 217 Personal action plans, 39 Person-centred practice, 68 Peseta, T., 234, 238 Poche Indigenous Health Network, 189

Pollard, K., 133 Pratt, M. L., 27 Productivity Commission, 118 Push-down culture, 145, 146 Push-up culture, 144, 146

#### **Q**

Quinnell, R., 8, 222, 226, 228, 229, 265, 269

#### **R**

Racial Discrimination Act, 33 Rallah-Baker, K., 187 Ramsden, Dr I., 160, 163, 166, 315, 316 Ranzjin, R., 19, 20, 25, 26 Reflective practice, 63, 64, 314, 323, 324 Relational accountability, 176–178, 190 Respectful care, 160, 182, 183 Re-storying, 32, 37, 38 *Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People*, 117 Rights discourses, 55 Rigney, L. I., 34, 44, 118, 127, 130, 139, 150 Rix, L., 178, 179, 182, 188 Robertson, K., 126, 127, 132 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 197, 208, 209 Russell, Dr. G., 45 Russell-Mundine, G., 5, 6, 44, 51, 72, 73, 217, 249, 260

#### **S**

Sakhaee, Dr E., 242, 243 Sale, K., 277 Scott, C., 258 Sensoy, O., 34 Servant leadership, 66, 147–150 Settler-colonialism hegemony, 46, 54, 207 settler-colonial countries, 34, 43, 44, 46, 49, 53, 55 settler-colonial institutions, 43, 55 settler-state, 48 societies, 55 Settler sovereignty, 46, 47 Shalley, F., 133 Shealy, C. N., 84, 88–90, 103, 106–108 Sherwood, Professor J., 20, 44–46, 51, 55, 72, 73, 160, 176, 179, 186, 188, 189, 260

Sisneros, J., 36 Smith, J., 8, 15, 73, 118–120, 122, 127, 139, 259, 314, 315 Sociality, 23 Social justice, 5, 7, 32–34, 37, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 70, 71, 177, 198, 201, 239, 257, 279, 288, 351 Sociocultural openness, 85, 88, 91, 93, 97, 98, 100, 101, 107–109 Socioemotional convergence, 86, 93, 98, 100 Socioreligious traditionalism, 86 STC. *See* Sydney Teaching Colloquium Sternberger, L., 87 Stocking, G., 16 Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), 106, 107 Structural genocide, 204, 208 Stuart, L., 186, 187 Students as partners critical friend, 240, 248 curriculum design, 236–238 initiatives, 8, 235, 236, 238, 268 SVSS. *See* Sydney School of Veterinary Science Sydney School of Veterinary Science (SVSS), 256 Sydney Teaching Colloquium (STC) evaluation strategy, 234 strategic plan, 234 Student Ambassador initiative, 234

#### **T**

TEQSA. *See* Tertiary Education Quality Standards Authority (TEQSA) Territoriality, 200, 204, 205, 207 Tertiary Education Quality Standards Authority (TEQSA), 132 Third culture, 26, 146, 201 Three domains of cultural capability, 69 Tino rangatiratanga, 48 Transactional approach, 74, 75 Transformative learning experiences, 84, 102, 106, 109, 267, 310 Transformative learning theory. *See* transformative leadership Transformative pedagogy three-tiered approach, 71 Tribal sovereignty, 201, 202 Truth-telling, 38 Tylor, E.B., 16

#### **U**

Uluru Statement from the Heart, 177 UNDRIP. *See* United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Article 4, 50 Article 5, 50 Article 15, 21 Article 18, 50 Article 19, 49, 50 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 216, 217, 318 United Nations standards, 20 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 44 Universities Australia (UA) indigenous cultural competency framework, 119, 123, 133 Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy 2017–2020, 118 University of Sydney, The Indigenous Strategy, 118, 221, 255, 260 Koori Centre, 217 University of Sydney 2016–2020 Strategic Plan, The, 5, 217, 255 Uptin, Dr J., 241 *Utopia*, 204, 207

#### **W**

Walter, M., 118, 128 Wandschneider, E., 85–90, 93, 95, 101–103, 105–107, 109 Wang, F., 6, 7, 335, 339 Watson, I., 47, 48 Western frames of reference, 74 White Australia Policy, 46 White fragility, 34, 300, 301, 321 Whiteness studies, 206 White privilege definition, 34, 75, 122, 169, 173, 178, 181–183, 199, 200, 207, 259, 261, 268, 298–303 Whole-of-institution approach, 6, 59, 353 Whole-of-university approach, 5, 8, 9 Wilkey, K., 137 Willsher, M., 201, 203, 205, 352 Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Integrated Strategy, 44, 221, 260, 271

Index 363

Wingara Mura–Bunga Barrabugu program, 260, 271 Wiradjuri Nation, 52 Wolfe, P., 51, 200, 205 World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) higher education accreditation process, 131

#### **Y**

Yarning methodology, 162, 172 Yarning Circles Healing Mainstream Health, 178 Yuin community, 241