A new paper from Mershen Pillay (CPN member) and Harsha Kathard titled Decolonizing health professional education has just been published by the African Journal of Rhetoric. The paper explores how higher education practice is failing the majority population in South Africa, and offers some critical insights into the nature of 'othering' that is prevalent in many health education programmes around the world. Abstract We argue that there is an urgent need to transform how we educate health professionals in South Africa. We focus on Audiology and Speech-Language Therapy, which are health professions that manage people with communication disorders and swallowing difficulties. Our … [Read more...] about Decolonizing health professional education
Are we gatekeepers, or locksmiths?
This post was published earlier on Michael Rowe's blog. Micheal is a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network and has given permission to reproduce his blogpost here. David Nicholls at Critical Physiotherapy recently blogged about how we might think about access to physiotherapy education, and offers the metaphor of a gated community as one possibility. The staff act as the guards at the gateway to the profession and the gate is a threshold across which students pass only when they have demonstrated the right to enter the community. This got me thinking about the metaphors we use as academics, particularly those that guide how we think about our role as examiners. David’s … [Read more...] about Are we gatekeepers, or locksmiths?
The (im)possibility of thinking under neoliberalism
The short video below (its just over 6 mins), previews a new paper (link here) by Bronwyn Davies, who is a fabulous educational thinker and scholar. Here she talks about how it's getting harder and harder to think in a climate that is increasingly anti-intellectual and anti-critique. She suggests that the threats of neo-liberalism reach into all spheres of our life and achieve their effects without us realising their power. Davies calls for a new spirit of critique. … [Read more...] about The (im)possibility of thinking under neoliberalism
What brings someone to the Critical Physiotherapy Network?
A few weeks ago we celebrated one year in the life of our little network and our 300th member. Since our inception we've received countless emails from people saying how glad they are that the network exists, and how nice it is that it's being run by such attractive, intelligent and wise people! (They're particularly complementary about our attractiveness). In all seriousness, it does seem as if the network is an idea whose time has come. Maybe there are enough physiotherapists now with the confidence and experience to tackle some of the thorny questions that now beset us? Maybe knowing that there are other people who think 'differently' has given people encouragement to join in? … [Read more...] about What brings someone to the Critical Physiotherapy Network?
Learning to think otherwise
One of the real pleasures of my job is the chance to supervise students doing lengthy doctoral and masters theses. I have a number of students doing different project, and they seem like the epitome of the kind of close personal relationship at the heart of learning and teaching. I had pause to reflect yesterday on an experience with one of my students who is looking at the way that biomedical discourses have come to dominate the way we think about cancer. He's using the writings of Michel Foucault to guide his thinking and, having no real appreciation for Foucault, he's made really good progress. Throughout his project he's grappled with his own belief that environmental and … [Read more...] about Learning to think otherwise
Doomed to repeat
A friend of mine recently sent me this cartoon after hearing me talk about some work that I've been doing looking at the history of physical therapies in New Zealand in the 19th century (in short - there was none). It got me thinking about the lack of really good critical historical work in physiotherapy; the kind of thing that goes beyond just the linear narrative of one event following another and, instead, tells you something about the conditions that made the present possible. There are some really stunning historical works in health and medicine, particularly around how we have come to understand the body and health care (see a very selective sample of references below), but it … [Read more...] about Doomed to repeat
Sociology of bio-knowledge at the limits of life
The March special issue of the Journal of Sociology has a special issue edited by Emma Kowal and the ever-excellent Alan Petersen, from Deakin and Monash Universities in Australia exploring the sociology of 'bio-knowledge,' and so may be of real interest to physiotherapists. Kowal and Petersen's editorial offers a potted history of sociology's interest in the field and provides some very useful references. The editorial is reproduced below, and an index of the full edition of the journal can be found here (link). Sociology of bio-knowledge at the limits of life In what has been called ‘the century of biology’ (Venter and Cohen, 2004), the reach of the ‘bio’ seems limitless. This prefix … [Read more...] about Sociology of bio-knowledge at the limits of life