Lori Hanson

Global Citizenship, Global Health, and the Internationalization of Curriculum: A Study of Transformative Potential

Social transformation models of internationalization suggest the need for radical reform to curricula to foster engaged global citizenship, yet little is written depicting how individual courses and their instructors might support such reform. This article stems from and explores philosophical, pedagogical, institutional, and curricular issues related to that challenge. The article reports on a 6-year outcome evaluation of the impact and transformative potential of two interdisciplinary global health courses taught using transformative pedagogies. Results of the evaluation show promise that this model of internationalized curricula can foster personal transformation and global citizenship while creating bridges of understanding between local and global health issues. The course pedagogy may hold keys to increasing potential for social transformation through the process of internationalizing curriculum.

Undergraduate International Medical Electives: Some Ethical and Pedagogical Considerations

The authors argue that attempts to establish more placements to meet the growing demands of undergraduate medical students in North America for international experiences may be outweighing critical reflection on the ethical issues, curricular content, and pedagogical strategies necessary to support equitable engagements with countries of the Global South. On the basis of a critical analysis of literature on international medical electives and experiences (IMEs), the article explores trends in IMEs and exposes several prominent issues, including paradoxes in underlying motivations, missing or ad hoc curricula and pedagogical approaches in IMEs, and ethical challenges that frequently arise. By engaging perspectives from critical educational theory, the authors suggest that IMEs as currently conceived are potentially ripe sites for the reproduction of colonialist ideas of North—South relationships. The authors conclude that IMEs will do little to address historically and politically rooted global health inequities unless critical consciousness is raised through improved global health curricula and appropriate pedagogical strategies.

Unpaid work and social policy: Engaging research with mothers on social assistance

The interlocking issues of gender, unpaid work and multiple forms of representation or lived experiences with social policy are complex. The study ‘Who Benefits: Women, Unpaid Work and Social Policy’, supported by Status of Women Canada, and guided by an advisory group consisting of women’s and anti-poverty organizations was based in Saskatchewan, Canada. The study interrogated how mothers on social assistance (SA) defined and understood unpaid caregiving work with small children; and the impact of social welfare policy guidelines that pushed SA recipients to find paid employment. Using action research and original, creative methods to gather data, the research simultaneously created a non-threatening environment for discussion, information-sharing, support and knowledge creation among participants. Overall, findings in the study resonate with other published studies on low-income women and unpaid work. Unique to this study particularly, were the action research process and outcomes which provided ways to address the needs of the study participants and to catalyze participant-led actions. The study assisted the 28 participants in linking their unpaid work with social policy and finally, in taking socio-political action. Actions included meetings with government, press conferences, and an uptake of recommendations by advisory group organizations. Independent of the research, the participants continued to meet after the study concluded.

Collaboration on Contentious Issues: Research Partnerships for Gender Equity in Nicaragua's Fair Trade Coffee Cooperatives

ABSTRACT In recent years, the use of collaborative and partnership approaches in health and agricultural research has flourished. Such approaches are frequently adopted to ensure more successful research uptake and to contribute to community empowerment through participatory research practices. At the same time that interest in research partnerships has been growing, publications on methods, models, and guidelines for building these partnerships have proliferated. However, partnership development is not necessarily as straightforward or linear a process as such literature makes it appear, particularly when the research involves divisive or contentious issues. This paper explores prevailing views on research partnerships, and also questions the applicability of partnership models using an emerging research program around gender equity and health in Fair Trade coffee cooperatives in Nicaragua as an example. Moreover, the paper introduces some of the complicated issues facing the authors as they attempt to develop and expand partnerships in this research area. The paper culminates with a series of strategies that the authors plan to use that offer alternative ways of thinking about building research partnerships concerning controversial or complex issues in the field of community health and development.

Comment — WHO's weakness is not technical, but due to lack of accountability

Negin and Dhillons proposal that functions presently carried out by WHO should be ‘outsourced’ to the Gates Foundation, the Gates-funded Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Medicins Sans Frontieres and national drug regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), lacks evidence, relies on flawed logic and serves to obscure critical causes of WHOs failures, in particular the donor chokehold. Negin and Dhillon cite a Cochrane review of outsourcing of healthcare in low-income and middle-income countries.1 Yet this review found only three studies that met its inclusion criteria all of which had a low quality of evidence and showed a high risk of bias. WHOs accountability is …

Experiences of Creating Internationalized Curricula through Global Health Programs at the University of Saskatchewan

Over the past 15 years, academic institutions have been adjusting their policies and programs in attempts to engage students and faculty with an increasingly globalized world through internationalization. In contrast to many other countries, internationalization in the Canadian university sector demonstrates a high degree of local institutional autonomy (Shubert & Trilokeker, 2009).