Cross-Cultural Service-Learning: An Introduction and Best Practices

Culture is complicated. Multiple definitions and theoretical approaches towards providing culturally appropriate care exist across the heathcare literature (Rudman & Dennhardt, 2008). Obviously, the variations in definitions of culture and approaches to exploring culturally relevant practice make teaching culture a significant challenge. Service-learning provides a model for introducing the concepts of culture in a real-world situation, forcing students to face their personal challenges and to develop the skills necessary to interact in a diverse world. In this chapter, the author will present service-learning as pedagogy for teaching the skills needed in cross-cultural settings. Prior to exploring the role of service-learning in teaching cross-cultural skills important terminology and cultural competence models will be discussed. Appendix A contains the Community Partner Justification Assignment which requires students to identify the community partner of their choice. Appendix B offers a wide variety of reflection questions beneficial for cross-cultural service-learning. [author]