JCPSLP November 2016

Creating sustainable services: Minority world SLPs in majority world contexts

Special issue A diverse global network of speech-language pathologists Bea Staley and Suzanne C. Hopf

required for developing a speech assessment tool for the Vietnamese context. In Atherton, Davidson, and McAllister, a participatory research project reveals the voices of Vietnam’s first SLP graduate cohort as they embark on the next stage of their professional development journey. All papers have in common a focus on future professional growth that involves international collaboration but importantly is not defined by that collaboration. In the papers by McAllister, Woodward, and Nagarajan, and by Barrett, our lens turns to the lessons minority-world SLPs learn through international collaborative relationships. McAllister et al. describe the transformative learning experiences of volunteer minority world-SLPs in the role of clinical educator (CE) in Vietnam. The authors report that many skills learned by the CEs in Vietnam are readily transferable to the CEs’ work environment in Australia (e.g., working with translators, developing intercultural competence). Barrett then draws upon experiences as a minority-world SLP in East Africa to critique whether available cultural competence theories can be applied to an increasingly mobile speech-language pathology workforce. Barrett suggests that current theories of cultural competence need to evolve to reflect changing concepts of culture. As we think about change, this can be extended also to the way services and training SLPs has typically been conceptualized. Olszewski and Frank remind us that if communication is a basic human right – one we are passionately striving to work towards on a global scale – we may have to re-consider and re-envision the way we train service providers and implement services in our field. Olszewski and Frank describe an innovative model for training SLPs through NextGenU, a free online program which partners with organisations, governments and universities. Their paper suggests that technology may break down the financial and environmental barriers that often prevent people living in majority-world countries from receiving specialist training and pursuing careers that support PWCD. What is abundantly clear in reading these papers is that no single framework for service development suits all contexts. For example, we see Wylie, Amponsah, Bampoe, and Owusu directly apply the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainable development embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015) to their own experiences in Ghana

People in all countries have called for a development agenda that is more consistent with the realization of their human rights, and which reflects the day to day reality of their lives. (UNDG, 2014, p. iii) T his quote from the United Nations (United Nations Development Group [UNDG], 2014) ushered in a global conversation in which 4.5 million people from almost 100 countries discussed the “future world that people want” (2014, p. 1). As speech-language pathologists (SLPs) advocating for the human rights of people with communication and swallowing disabilities (PWCD) globally, we want our services to reflect the needs of the communities in which we work. There is considerable interest in the development of speech-language pathology in global regions experiencing poor availability and accessibility of speech, language and swallowing clinical services. This is particularly the case for services in majority-world countries. Consequently, this issue of JCPSLP discusses the varied roles of minority-world SLPs working with our colleagues in majority-world contexts. There is a long history of minority-world clinicians working in varied international contexts. In the late 1990s SLPs (e.g., Hartley, 1998; Marshall, 1997) began to write about their work in majority-world contexts (e.g., Kenya and Uganda) and to develop frameworks for other SLPs to apply in their own work (e.g., Hartley & Wirz, 2002). These authors highlighted the need to document speech-language pathology work in new locations so that a knowledge base could be developed and drawn upon by other clinicians. The papers in this special issue build on the ideas of these SLPs and the many more published since. Ensuring that the voices of the local context are heard is a recurrent theme of this issue. Nearly all of the articles presented include the voices of SLPs, or their local equivalent, native to the majority-world context discussed. For example, three papers from Vietnam provide insight into how the relatively new speech-language pathology profession is capitalising on past – and indeed continuing – minority-world SLP collaboration, and indigenising international speech-language pathology concepts and curricula for the local context. The Nguyen, Dien, Sheard, Xuan, Tâm, Va˘ n Quyên, and Dao paper provides an account of the history and current clinical and advocacy practices of new graduate Vietnamese SLPs, while Pham, McLeod, and Xuan describe the process

Bea Staley (top) and Suzanne C. Hopf

106

JCPSLP Volume 18, Number 3 2016

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology