The Status of Cultural Knowledge
in Nursing Education
ANNIE AARUP JENSEN, DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION, LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY
KIRSTEN JÆGER
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AND GLOBAL STUDIES
AALBORG UNIVERSITY
Project framework: Cultural Intelligence, sub-projectTalking
Culture
 Participants: Copenhagen Business School, Aalborg
University, national and international corporate and
institutional partners
 Sub-project Talking Culture: Research project, aiming at
investigating the discursive constructions of culture, cultural
difference and intercultural encounters pertaining to
organizational and professional practice (multicultural forprofit organizations and public institutions (healthcare
sector, nursing education))
Interview study on the importance of ‘culture
knowledge (intercultural understanding; cultural
awareness)
 “Cultural knowledge is necessary as preparation to function
in an globalized, multicultural working context”
 However, too much emphasis on cultural knowledge may
lead to a neglect of core qualifications in nursing education
 Is cultural knowledge at odds with nursing professionalism
or an instrument of further professional development?
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The question cannot be answered within the disciplinary boundaries of
ICC research
It requires an interdisciplinary approach combining intercultural
studies and studies of the professions
Intercultural communication research
 Pays little attention to professional identities
 Has little understanding of professional implications of
intercultural communication issues/problems; lacks
professional insight on a detailed level
 Views intercultural communication problems as related
to (national)cultural identities, secondarily to
organizational identities
 ‘cultural knowledge’ (knowledge of the culturally
different; cultural self-reflection etc.) conducive to
efficient intercultural interaction
 Professionals’ research on ICC ->”transcultural nursing”
(has been criticized for ‘inherent culturalism’)
 “Respondents’ self-perceived low cultural expertise and
uncertainty made them uncomfortable as professionals,
and some felt that the quality of care for patients was
being affected as a result. This was further enmeshed
with professionals’ concerns about the lack of rapport
they felt able to achieve with patients because of
perceived lack of shared cultural background, language,
or values. They felt less able to use, or trust, empathy as
part of their approach.” (Kai et al. 2007: 1770)
ICC
 Due to the lack of professional insight, ICC
researchers’ results and recommendations cannot
address profession-related problems in detail or in
depth, but remain relatively general and unspecific.
 It is always a good idea “to raise one’s cultural self
awareness; to be aware of personal and
organizational discourse; and first and foremost: to
be a culturally reflective person, critically reflecting
on one’s own cultural biases and always embracing
difference with an open mind”.
Nurses’ perception of ethnic minority patients – a
professional issue
 Data: Discourse analysis of all articles on ethnic
minority patients from 2000 to 2008
Challenges due to language problems and diverging cultural
expectations (non-compliance issues, perceptions of disease and
health diverging from Western (Danish) health knowledge, nonadherence to hospital routines) are seen as professional problems
– as obstacles to adequate professional action
 Dysfunctional professional / client (nurse/patient) relationships
(for example lacking recognition of nurses’ professional authority)
are seen as a threat to professionalism (Jæger & Jensen 2009; Kai
et al. 2007)
 Do perceived problems indicate ‘racism in disguise’ or ‘sound
professional judgment’?

Potential gains from applying a studies of the
professions approach
 Possible to understand different views on the
importance of cultural knowledge as articulations of
different professionalization strategies (not as
nursing educators’ sufficient/insufficient recognition
of the ‘objectively existing cultural knowledge need’
in nursing education)
 Contribute to the development of a ‘common ground’
on which precarious issues involving both
professional concerns and cultural and linguistic
considerations can be discussed and understood