Critical Ethnographic Analysis of “Doing Good” on Short‐Term International Immersion Experiences

Abstract

Reciprocal partnerships are growing alongside the rise of international learning and "doing" experiences for students and clinicians. This paper questions how global citizenship, the acquisition of awareness and skills to sensitively navigate through a rapidly globalized social world, is cultivated amidst international partnerships focused on short-term immersion opportunities. Using an ethnographic methodology to examine the experiences of occupational therapy students abroad, this paper addresses the potential for competing agendas when the motivation to participate within these partnerships is driven in part by a desire to "do good." The empirical lens was directed towards the students' verbal, written and enacted narratives rather than the sociocultural realm of the sending institution, the host organization or the occupational realities of the local communities, therefore is limited in discursive scope. Nevertheless, the need is great for further critical appraisal of objectives and expectations by all parties to foster a partnership culture of reciprocity and equality and to diminish the neocolonial legacy of Western expertise dissemination. By examining how the stated and implied desire to do good exists alongside the risk to do harm to individuals and international networks, the conclusions can be extended locally to highlight the challenges to "partnering up" between clinicians and patients.

In the shadow of occupation: Racism, shame and grief

“…This section of the paper pertains to research undertaken by the second author, a modified ethnographic study informed by narrative phenomenology and person-centred ethnography (Elliot, 2015a(Elliot, , 2015bElliot & Bonsall, in press;Hollan, 2001Hollan, , 2008Mattingly, 2010). The heading is inspired by the title of feminist scholar Carol Gilligan's (1982) influential text of the same name, though is not drawing parallels to the content that follows beyond an acknowledgement of the resonance of its themes pertaining to self, identity, and justice.…”

Building stories

“…The nine-month ethnography investigated the temporal influence of anticipation, participation and reflection and the spatial dimension that different geographies play in the construction of narratives. In other words, across time and space, with individuals and small groups, interviews were conducted, written and photographic accounts were collected, overseas realities were observed, and the overarching conversation happening between and across individual-collective-societal levels was documented (Elliot, 2015a(Elliot, , 2015b.…”

Dialogical reflexivity towards collective action to transform global health

“…12 13 Actions may be motivated by their perceived ability to further the careers of individuals, bolster the reputations of institutions or simply by a desire to be seen to be 'doing something'. Reflexivity, the act of acknowledging individual positionality 14 15 and motivation 16 when engaging with the rhetoric on systems transformation, 17 has been posited as a vital component of decolonising global health and in dismantling supremacy more broadly.…”