Abstract
In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in scientific and societal debates to decolonize global health and make global health practices (more) equitable. At the same time, the Covid-19 developments worldwide showed the existing and exacerbated health disparities, both within and between countries. In addition, Covid-19 forced educators globally to offer their education virtually.
In the global health courses offered by UMC Utrecht, we try to not only address these developments but also take responsibility and make an effort to decolonize our global health curriculum. In the Covid era, we were able to leverage the opportunities of online education by diversifying our speakers pool and invite lecturers from various countries in the Global South. In the Fall of 2021, piloted a collaborative classroom with students from the Global South, and were joined by students of the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. This idea of ‘internationalisation at home’ or ‘exchange in the classroom’ took place within the course ‘Global Health Practice’ for third year Bachelor students at University College Utrecht (UCU), a liberal arts and sciences residential college in the Netherlands. The project contributed the learning objective’s of both student groups to enhance intercultural competences. The approach was to let students from both institutions work together in groups of 4 to 5 students towards a final presentation, either on maternal health or non-communicable diseases. The students had to collectively choose a population in one of their countries to focus on, and carefully listen to and learn from their peers’ perspectives in working towards their final product. Students were also expected to individually reflect on the group dynamics in terms of their various different backgrounds.
The aim of this ‘Snapshots from practice’ session is to share lessons learnt from this project to work towards Open Education project to enhance intercultural competences by having peers from The Netherlands and Bangladesh collaborate. In the session, the strategy will be explained, as well as the results. The second half of the session is devoted to sharing some challenges from the specific project, and invite participants to share their expertise, experiences and ideas to tackle those challenges in similar Open Education projects in education in the future.
In the global health courses offered by UMC Utrecht, we try to not only address these developments but also take responsibility and make an effort to decolonize our global health curriculum. In the Covid era, we were able to leverage the opportunities of online education by diversifying our speakers pool and invite lecturers from various countries in the Global South. In the Fall of 2021, piloted a collaborative classroom with students from the Global South, and were joined by students of the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. This idea of ‘internationalisation at home’ or ‘exchange in the classroom’ took place within the course ‘Global Health Practice’ for third year Bachelor students at University College Utrecht (UCU), a liberal arts and sciences residential college in the Netherlands. The project contributed the learning objective’s of both student groups to enhance intercultural competences. The approach was to let students from both institutions work together in groups of 4 to 5 students towards a final presentation, either on maternal health or non-communicable diseases. The students had to collectively choose a population in one of their countries to focus on, and carefully listen to and learn from their peers’ perspectives in working towards their final product. Students were also expected to individually reflect on the group dynamics in terms of their various different backgrounds.
The aim of this ‘Snapshots from practice’ session is to share lessons learnt from this project to work towards Open Education project to enhance intercultural competences by having peers from The Netherlands and Bangladesh collaborate. In the session, the strategy will be explained, as well as the results. The second half of the session is devoted to sharing some challenges from the specific project, and invite participants to share their expertise, experiences and ideas to tackle those challenges in similar Open Education projects in education in the future.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 3 Dec 2021 |
| Event | Developing intercultural competences in online and physical learning environments - Online Duration: 3 Dec 2021 → 3 Dec 2021 https://www.uu.nl/en/news/conference-developing-intercultural-competences-in-online-and-physical-learning-environments |
Conference
| Conference | Developing intercultural competences in online and physical learning environments |
|---|---|
| Period | 3/12/21 → 3/12/21 |
| Internet address |