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Creating sustainable services: Minority world SLPs in majority world contexts

106

JCPSLP

Volume 18, Number 3 2016

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology

Bea Staley (top)

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

Special issue

A diverse global network of speech-language pathologists

Bea Staley and Suzanne C. Hopf