Optimising Student Learning on International Placements in Low Income Settings: The Contribution of Cultural Brokerage

This paper challenges the assumption that student visits to low resource settings inevitably promote the acquisition of cultural competence. Much of the literature advocating the expansion of such “exposures” lists numerous positive outcomes with an emphasis on “cultural learning”. With important exceptions, the concept of cultural learning remains uncontested, nestling in the fluffy haze of an inherently benevolent multi-culturalism. The emphasis in current research is on “learning” or “competency” at the expense of definitional clarity around the concept of culture itself. This results in a tendency to overemphasise (and essentialise) difference rather than commonality and conflates cultural learning with narrow (stereotypical) concepts of race, ethnicity and religion. The paper discusses the experiences of students undertaking placements in Uganda through Knowledge for Change, a UK charity hosting the Ethical Educational Placements project.