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Creating sustainable services: Minority world SLPs in majority world contexts

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

JCPSLP

Volume 18, Number 3 2016

131

KEYWORDS

INDIGENISED

PRACTICE

INNOVATION

MAJORITY-

WORLD

COUNTRIES

SPEECH-

LANGUAGE

PATHOLOGY

SUSTAINABLE

PRACTICES

VIETNAM

THIS ARTICLE

HAS BEEN

PEER-

REVIEWED

Nguyen Thi Ngoc

Dung (top) and

Le Khanh Dien

that SLP students in these new courses can interrogate

“transplanted” information for its relevance and develop

culturally relevant knowledge and clinical practice skills;

that is, “indigenise” their knowledge and practices (see for

example Hauser, Howlett, & Matthews, 2009). Furthermore,

it is important that majority-world practitioners are able to

share with minority-world clinicians innovative “indigenised”

approaches to the problems they face in practice, to enable

two-way learning (Walsh, 2016).

This paper presents vignettes highlighting innovation,

indigenisation and plans for future development by

graduates of two-year postgraduate courses in speech-

language pathology, and where appropriate their

Australian mentors. The first vignette in this paper comes

from Vietnamese academic Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung,

recognised as the champion for the development of

speech-language pathology in southern Vietnam. Her

leadership enabled the development of the two-year

postgraduate course at University Pham Ngoc Thach. Four

graduates of this course, known to be doing innovative

work to develop SLP education and services, were

approached to write four vignettes for the paper.

Vignette 1. Background to speech-

language pathology education in

south Vietnam

Prof Ngoc Dung, professor of ENT and former rector

of the University Pham Ngoc Thach, Ho Chi Minh City

As an ENT doctor and former director of the ENT Hospital

of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) I know that speech therapy

1

is

vital in the treatment and rehabilitation of people with

communication and swallowing impairments. Speech

therapy training in HCMC started in 2009 with a short

course run by Trinh Foundation Australia at the ENT

Hospital for doctors, nurses and audiologists on aspects of

speech therapy. Becoming rector of University Pham Ngoc

Thach in HCMC enabled the development and delivery of

two 2-year postgraduate courses (2010–12 and 2012–14)

run at University Pham Ngoc Thach with support from Trinh

Foundation Australia and Australian Volunteers International

(see McAllister et al., 2013). Thirty-three graduates from

those two courses have established speech therapy clinics

and services, mostly in public hospitals, in Ho Chi Minh City,

Hue, Hanoi, Vung Tau, Bau Loc and other provinces. With

the management of the speech therapy office at University

Pham Ngoc Thach, the support of Trinh Foundation

Australia and Australian Volunteers for International

This paper presents vignettes of innovations

in speech-language pathology practice in

Vietnam, and situates these in the larger

context of global considerations impacting

on speech-language pathology education and

service delivery. The paper provides an

introductory vignette setting the context for

four more vignettes from speech-language

pathologists in southern Vietnam. The

graduates’ vignettes illustrate a range of

innovative, sustainable, indigenised and

culturally relevant developments in speech-

language pathology practice and education.

Two vignettes highlight the use of volunteers

and the available health and education

workforce to develop sustainable new

services for children and adults with

communication disorders. Two vignettes

illustrate innovative and culturally appropriate

ways of indigenising curricula and

approaches to educating the Vietnamese

public and the existing health workforce

about communication and swallowing

disorders and speech-language pathology

services. The paper invites readers to reflect

on what speech-language pathology globally

might learn from our colleagues in majority-

world countries.

C

ollaborations between clinicians and academics

in minority-world (developed) and majority-world

(developing) countries have been successful in

establishing speech-language pathology (SLP) education

and services in many majority-world countries (for examples

from nine such countries, see the

International Journal

of Speech-Language Pathology

, 2013, vol. 15, issue

1). However, there is a risk of post-colonialism (Nixon

et al., 2015) when minority-world curricula or practices

are transferred into new SLP courses in majority-world

countries. That is, what comes from minority-world

countries can be privileged over local knowledge and

practices, in the assumption that “west is best”, even

when it may not be culturally relevant or the knowledge

applicable in new contexts. Therefore, it is important

Practice innovations from the

emerging speech-language

pathology profession in Vietnam

Vignettes illustrating indigenised and sustainable

approaches

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung, Le Khanh Dien, Christine Sheard, Le Thi Thanh Xuan, Trà Thanh Tâm, Hoàng

V

ă

n Quyên, Le Thi Dao, and Lindy McAllister