Title
Culture, community health and wellbeing
intercultural sensitivity and participation)
Code
NAM116
Level
7
Credit rating
20 credits
Pre-requisites
Normal entry requirements for the Graduate Programme in
Health and Social Sciences.
Type of module
Intensive
Aims
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Learning
outcomes/objectives
(formerly
To enable students to understand how health
knowledge, related practices and health behaviour are
shaped by the cultural, social, economic and political
contexts in which they occur
To develop students’ ability to critically reflect on
experience, knowledge and evidence relevant to
community health and well -being
On successful completion of the module the student will be
able to:
1. Critically reflect on the relationship between personal
experience and cultural, social, political and economic
factors that influence health and wellbeing.
2. Critically explore diverse cultural traditions of health
by examining different knowledge systems, power
relations and healing traditions across cultures.
3. Compare how culture shapes diverse health traditions
and consider the interface between biomedicine and
alternative
approaches to knowledge generation in
Western health contexts.
4. Critically synthesise knowledge to consider the
influence of cultural pluralism, diversity and
inequalities on health behaviour.
5. Gain a reflexive self awareness of values during
collaboration with ‘others’ in culturally diverse health
contexts.
Content
Theoretical content will be drawn from health and social care,
health promotion, social sciences and anthropology in order
to consider:
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Culture, health discourses and pluralism (What are
different ideas about health across cultures? What makes
for a healthy body? How do these relate to diverse
worldviews? What are the implications of these views for
collaborative working practices?)
Biomedical-, social-, solution focused or appreciative
approaches to health
How culture and healing traditions shape the body in
health care
Dealing with diversity, recognition and difference
Cultural and personal narratives of health
Intercultural collaboration, cultural safety and social
inclusion
Participation, social capital and community processes
Processes of critical reflection in health and social care
Health policy, inequalities and the social justice agenda
Values and ethics of cultural diversity
Notions of knowledge, power and self-governance of
health
Reflexivity and an awareness of how personal values
impact on collaborative working practices
Teaching and learning Keynote lectures, a field trip, critical reflection group, journal
strategies
writing, workshop, individual tutorials and learning via student
central and electronic resources.
Formative assessment:
The student will make an informal presentation to peers about
how their own values, beliefs and personal philosophies were
challenged due to an encounter with cultural difference or
culturally diverse health traditions which they have
experienced in previous practice or during the modulefieldtrip. (Learning outcomes 4 & 5)
In preparation of the fieldtrip students will receive detailed
guidance and a briefing document during a workshop. Module
leaders as workshop facilitators will clarify any potential
ethical and safety considerations prior to the event. The
fieldtrip will be undertaken in small groups during the interval
between the first and second series of taught sessions.
The fieldtrip will be followed by a critical reflection workshop
where students will explore their experiences and the cultural
values and/or assumptions that underpin these experiences.
Students will be supported to make meaning of their
experiences and consider socially just change.
*Students with limited professional or intercultural exposure
will be encouraged to undertake an additional optional
fieldtrip during the interval between first and second series of
taught sessions. Module and Course Leaders will offer
suggestions for an additional fieldtrip; however the student
will be responsible for making detailed arrangements.
Direct taught hours 48
Independent student effort 152
Total hours 200
Learning support
Anderson, J. et al 2003 “Rewriting” Cultural Safety within the
Postcolonial and Postnational Feminist Project: Towards new
epistemologies of healing. Advances in Nursing Science. 26
(3):196-214
Browne, Annette.J. Varcoe, Colleen. Smye, Victoria. et al
2009 Cultural safety and the challenges of translating
critically orientated knowledge in practice. Nursing Philosophy
(10):167-179.
Chambers, R. 2002 Participatory Workshops: A Sourcebook
of 21 Sets of Ideas and Activities Earthscan Publications
Finlay, L. & Gouch, B. 2003 Reflexivity: A practical guide for
researchers in health & social sciences. Oxford:Blackwell
Fraser, Nancy. & Honneth, A. 2003 Redistribution or
Recognition:
A
Political-Philosophical
Exchange.
London:Verso.
Frank A. 2010. Socio-Narratology: letting stories breath.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fook, J. & Gardner, J. 2007 Practicing Critical Reflection.
Berkshire: Open University Press.
Fulford, K.W.M. 2004 Ten Principles of Values-Based
Medicine. The philosophy of Psychiatry: A Companion. Ch.
14 J. Radden. New York, Oxford University Press, 2004:205234.
Gaventa, J. 2006 ‘Finding the Spaces for Change: A Power
Analysis’, IDS Bulletin, 37(6): 23-33.
Gaventa, J. and Cornwall, A. 2006 ‘Challenging the
Boundaries of the Possible: Participation, Knowledge and
Power’, IDS Bulletin, 37(6): 122-127
Grant A, Biley F, Walker H. (eds). 2011. Our Encounters
with Madness. Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books
Hart, A., V. Hall, & F. Henwood. 2003 Helping health and
social care professionals to develop an ‘inequalities
imagination’: a model for use in education and practice.
Journal of Advanced Nursing , 41(5),482-491
Helman, C. 2007. Culture, health and illness. New York:
Hodder Arnold.
Hickey, S. & Mohan, G. (eds) 2004 Participation: From
Tyranny to Transformation? - Exploring New Approaches to
Participation in Development. London: Zed Books
Kline, M. & Huff, R. 2007 Health Promotion in Multicultural
Populations. London: Sage.
Lindstrom, B. & Eriksson, M. 2006 Contextualizing
Salutogenisis and Antonovsky in public health development.
Health Promotion International, 21(3):238-244.
Marmot, M. 2004 Dignity and Inequality. The Lancet. (364):
1019-1021.
MacLachlan, M. 2006. Culture and Health, a critical
perspective towards Global Health. Chichester: John Wiley &
Sons.
McDonnell, O., Lohan, M., Hyde, A. & Porter, S. 2009
Social Theory, Health and Healthcare. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
McNay, L. 2008 Against Recognition. Cambridge: Polity.
Twigg, J. 2006 The Body in Health and Social Care.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Walsh, T. 2010 The Solution-focused Helper, Ethics and
Practice in Health and Social Care. Maidenhead: Open
University Press.
Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. 2009 The spirit level, why do
more equal societies almost always do better. London:
Penguin.
White, S., Fook, J. & Gardner, F. 2006 Critical Reflection in
Health and Social Care. Berkshire. Open University Press.
Policy Framework

DoH (2009) Tackling health inequalities, 10 years on.
London: HMSO.

DoH (2010) Healthy lives, healthy people. Our strategy for
public health in England. London: HMSO.

DoH (2010) Our health and wellbeing today. London:
HMSO.

DoH (2009) Transforming community services: ambition,
action, achievement. London: HMSO.

NICE (2008) Community Engagement to improve health.
London: NICE.

WHO (2004) Global strategy on diet, physical activity &
Health. Genève: World Health Organisation.

UN (2000) Millennium development goals. New York.
United Nations Development Programme.

UN (2010) Global strategy for women’s and children’s
health. New York. United Nations Development
Programme.
WebPages
National Social Inclusion Programme (2009) Vision and
progress/ social inclusion and mental health. CSIP, NIMHE.
[Online] Available at:

http://www.socialinclusion.org.uk/home/index.php
Marmot Review (2010) Fair Society, Healthy Lives. The
Marmot Review. Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in
England post 2010. Available at:

http://www.ucl/ac.uk/marmotreview
Centre for Social Justice (2011) Mental Health, Poverty and
Family Breakdown. [Online] Available at:
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Assessment tasks
http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
Summative assessment
Using an entry from the journal kept throughout the module,
the student will prepare a photo/picture essay (12-15 photos,
3000 words and 20-30 references) as critical reflection to
consider the impact of culture on health and wellbeing. The
subject of the reflection might be drawn from previous
work/life experience, or from module fieldwork and may / may
not be the same as used in the formative assessment.
(Learning outcomes 1,2,3)
Brief description of
module content and/or
The module will enable students to critically reflect on how
aims (maximum 80
their own values, beliefs and assumptions are informed by
words)
the broader cultural contexts in which they occur. The
relationship between culture, health and wellbeing will be
explored by illuminating diverse community health traditions.
The knowledge systems that underpin health traditions and
practices will be examined via module content.
Area
examination SNM GPHSS AEB
board to which module
relates
Module coordinators
Laetitia Zeeman
Contributors
Alec Grant, Juliet Millican, Kay Aranda, Sharon de Goeas,
Nita Muir
Semester
offered, 1
where appropriate
Timetable slot(s)
Site where delivered
Falmer
Date of first approval
1st Feb 2012
Date of last revision
Date of approval of 1st Feb 2012
this version
Version number
Replacement
previous module
1
for 0
Course(s) for which Mandatory
module is acceptable
PG Cert Health
and status in that
PG Dip/MSc Community Health
course
MSc Community Health and Education
MSc Community Health and Management
Optional
Cert/PG Dip/MA Health Promotion
PG Dip/MA International Health Promotion
GPHSS
School home
Nursing and Midwifery
External examiner
Dr Lynne Kennedy (Oct 2008 – Sep 2012)
Dr Pamela Schickler (Oct 2012 – Sept 2016)