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Time: 16 hours
Level: Introductory
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 Introduction Resource- Interpersonal communication in health and social care services is by its nature diverse. As a consequence, achieving good or effective communication – whether between service providers and service users,...
| | | | | Introducing diversity and difference
- Introducing diversity and difference Resource
- This unit focuses on issues of difference and diversity in a specific sense. Rather than analysing diversity in terms of kinds of communication and relationships, the focus here shifts to diversity in...
| | | | | 1: ‘Difference’ and communication
- 1.1: A communication ‘problem’? Resource
- This unit starts by exploring at a general level the relationship between ideas of ‘difference’ and issues of interpersonal communication. In the first activity, you will consider a brief case study that...
- Analysing communication problems Resource
- Below are two very different responses to Case Study 1.
- 1.2: Ways of understanding ‘difference’ Resource
- The debate about the nature and causes of ethnic, gender and other ‘differences’ is complex and contentious. Here, for the sake of simplicity, two very broad and contrasting perspectives on the issue are...
- The social construction of ‘difference’ Resource
- Social constructionists take issue with psychological accounts of human behaviour, criticising them for making universal generalisations and for having too great a focus on the individual. By contrast,...
- 1.3: ‘Difference’ and identity Resource
- If differences on the basis of gender, ethnicity and disability are socially constructed, how should people view their identities, for example as men, or disabled people, or people of African–Caribbean...
- Reflecting on identity Resource
- How would you describe your identity or identities? What kind of words would you use to describe yourself in terms of:
- Aspects of identity Resource
- Every person has a range of identities, according to how they see themselves (and how others see them) in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and so on. This means that seeing an individual in...
- 1.4: ‘Difference’, power and discrimination Resource
- These first few sections have emphasised the point that differences are always produced in a social context, and that a key part of that context is power relationships. As pointed out earlier, a key element...
- Experiencing prejudice and discrimination Resource
- Look again at your answer to Activity 3. Now think of an experience when an aspect of your identity (for example, in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, class, sexuality or age) resulted in you:
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- 2.1: ‘Race’, ethnicity and communication Resource
- As noted in the Introduction, much of the debate about difference and diversity in health and social care has focused on issues of ‘race’ and ethnicity. It is perhaps the area that first comes to mind...
- ‘Race’ Resource
- The word ‘race’ has largely been discredited in academic and policy discussions. You will notice that in this unit, as elsewhere in the course, we have adopted the now common practice of putting the term...
- Ethnicity Resource
- By contrast with ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’ is still widely used to describe differences between groups, although like ‘race’ it is a contested term. The terms ‘ethnic’ and ‘ethnicity’ are commonly used to denote...
- Describing your ethnicity Resource
- The list of ‘ethnic’ groups below is taken from the UK census of 2001. Read through the list and then decide which term best describes you.
- Ethnic categories Resource
- As we noted in Section 1, the names and labels used to denote specific differences – including those relating to ethnicity – are always changing. For example, the term ‘mixed background’ was first introduced...
- 2.2: ‘Racialisation’ and racism Resource
- Section 1 made the point that attributing fixed ‘differences’ to particular groups can be seen as an exercise of power, by which certain people are defined as ‘other’, and usually as inferior. ‘Racialisation’...
- The process of 'racialisation' Resource
- Stereotypes of African–Caribbean families
- The impact of 'racialisation' Resource
- Imagine that you are a white advice worker who has had little contact with African–Caribbean families. Your view of African–Caribbean people has been informed by the kind of stereotypical views reflected...
- Being on the receiving end Resource
- David and Marie Cameron, a married couple in their 40s, live in a middle-class suburb. Marie teaches French at the local secondary school, while David is a full-time official for a clerical workers’ union....
- 2.3: Working with difference Resource
- If ‘racial’ or ethnic differences are produced as part of a process that ‘racialises’ certain groups as ‘other’, how should services respond to the issue of difference? What practical steps can service...
- Ethnic matching Resource
- As Robinson acknowledges, effective practice in inter-ethnic communication is fraught with difficulties and dilemmas. It has been suggested that communication may be assisted by appointing health and social...
- Services for inter-ethnic communications Resource
- Another way in which services have attempted to respond to issues of inter-ethnic communication is the provision of services for people whose first language is not English. You may remember this appeared...
- Employing interpreters and link workers in health and social care Resource
- Read the report on the previous screen of the RCN Health Visitors Forum in 2002 and, as you do so, list the key reasons Sandra Rote gives for employing interpreters.
- 2.4 Challenging racism Resource
- Section 2.3 explored strategies for ‘working with difference’ in care services, based on an approach that acknowledges diversity in communication needs. You saw that there are dangers in strategies that...
- Exploring anti-oppressive practice Resource
- Read the extract ‘Anti-oppressive practice’, by Beverley Burke and Philomena Harrison and make notes on the key elements of anti-oppressive practice. How might you apply these ideas to your own experience...
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- 3.1 Thinking about gender Resource
- So far in this unit you have considered some general issues concerning difference, diversity and communication in care services, and how these issues relate specifically to ‘race’ and ethnicity. In this...
- Talking about gender Resource
- Think about the health or social care service you know best, as either a worker, carer or service user. Think of times in the recent past when gender came up as a topic or a factor, in talk or in writing....
- Reflecting on gender and identity Resource
- First, look back at what you wrote (if anything) under ‘gender’ in your response to Activity 3.
- Where does gender come from? Resource
- In Activity 14 you described your gender identity. But where does this identity come from? Think for a few minutes about your sense of yourself as a man or a woman, and reflect on the following.
- 3.2 Gender and power Resource
- Feminist writers have documented the ways in which inequalities based on gender are reflected and reproduced in health and social care services. Although the majority of workers in care services are women,...
- Gender and power in the workplace Resource
- If you are, or have been, employed in a health and social care service, think about the ways in which gendered power ‘works’ in that setting. If you are a service user, you might consider a care service...
- Gender and power in helping relationships Resource
- Think about the following two scenarios.
- 3.3 Gender and difference Resource
- The discussion above referred to some of the stereotypes about the ways in which men and women supposedly communicate and interact with each other. For example, there is a view that in meetings men tend...
- The revival of gender essentialism Resource
- After falling out of fashion in the wake of feminist influence in the 1970s and 1980s, there are signs that the notion of ‘essential’ gender differences is undergoing a revival. At an academic level, this...
- Men and women communicating differently? Resource
- Reread the summary and quotations from Tannen's and Gray's work on the previous screen, and then make notes in answer to the following questions.
- Critiquing gender essentialism Resource
- Look again at what Tannen and Gray say about men's and women's communicative behaviour. Then review the description of essentialism and the social constructionist critique of it in Section 1.2. What criticisms...
- The implications of gender differences in communication Resource
- If it were true that men and women tend to communicate in very different ways, what might be the implications for health and social care in terms of:
- Gender and parenting Resource
- Other feminist writers have used psychodynamic ideas to support their argument that gender differences, while ‘real’, are not inevitable but the result of the ways in which children are socialised in contemporary...
- Changing fatherhood identities Resource
- Read Martin Robb's chapter on ‘Men talking about fatherhood: discourse and identities’. As you read, think about and make notes on the following questions.
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- What is disability? Resource
- The focus in this section is on how disability can impact on communication and relationships in the context of health and social care. The section is structured around four main activities: there are three...
- Technologies of help? Resource
- Read the chapter on ‘Technology, selfhood and physical disability’, by Deborah Lupton and Wendy Seymour.
- Disability and communication Resource
- Read the chapter on ‘Disability and communication: listening is not enough’, by Sally French and John Swain, to the end of the section ‘Experiencing disabling communication barriers’. As you do so, make...
- The politics of disability Resource
- Below you will find links to three support groups. You can select just one of the groups or you may choose to look at all three. Answer the two questions following the links .
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- 5 Conclusion Resource
- This unit explored at length some of the difficult issues around the topic of communication, difference and diversity. The analysis of three specific dimensions of ‘difference’ – ethnicity, gender and...
| | | | | References and Acknowledgements | | |
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