Research Provides Direction for Multicultural Curriculum
Contact: Kay Hyatt at (207) 581-2761
ORONO, Maine — A University of Maine graduate student is being recognized nationally for her research and resulting model for incorporating multiculturism into the academic preparation of physical therapists. Suzanne Gordon, director of the Physical Therapy program at Husson College in Bangor and a doctoral student in UMaine’s Higher Education Leadership program, was honored for her innovative work at the recent meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections meeting in San Diego.
Gordon was selected by the Journal of Physical Therapy Education Editorial Advisory Board as recipient of the 2005 Feitelberg Journal Founder’s Award recognizing excellence in the preparation of a manuscript by a first-time author. Her position paper, “Making meaning of whiteness: a pedagogical approach for multicultural education,” was published in the Spring 2005 edition of the Journal. The paper is based on Gordon’s dissertation, which explores faculty perceptions and practices related to including and teaching multicultural education in entry-level physical therapist programs in New England.
“To be effective, a physical therapist must have a trusting, open relationship with patients. If we don’t understand cultural values — or wrongly assume patients share our own values — we won’t have the relationship needed to treat and rehabilitate effectively,” Gordon explains. “Language, touch, even eye contact are all cultural traditions and practices. We need to be aware of how such differences can influence or impair relationships.”
Physical therapy students and faculty in Maine and other areas of New England are mostly white and middle class, yet many of these students will do internships and eventually practice in much more diverse settings, according to Gordon, which makes teaching for multiculturism a concern and challenge for faculty.
Gordon’s curriculum model is founded on her qualitative study examining the goals, understandings and characteristics of educators experienced in teaching multicultural education at eight different physical therapist programs. The model’s philosophical foundation — treating people equitably while recognizing and allowing them to hold on to cultural differences — supports a multicultural framework for instruction directed toward cultural competency and social justice activism
Instruction supporting the model’s cultural competency goals focuses on human relations, cultural group differences, and cross-cultural skills that enhance therapeutic relationships, while the social justice responsibility component examines sociological analyses of privilege, power and oppression, and the process of social activism to help ensure everyone gets the services they need.
“Understanding multiculturalism and how inequities came about in health care is essential to changing the system, and that means rethinking the way we educate our students,” Gordon says.
Physical therapy as a profession has framed strong national standards to assure that graduates are able to serve and advocate for clients representing the full range of diversity in the country, according to Suzanne Estler, UMaine associate professor of Higher Education Leadership and Gordon’s advisor.
“Suzanne’s study has broken new ground in understanding how pioneers in the field both understand and enact multicultural education, often in isolating circumstances and against institutional and cultural barriers,” Estler says. “As a result of her research, physical therapy programs will be able to build on the experiences of the educators she studied rather than starting anew.”
Gordon, an Orono resident, also received a dissertation fellowship from the American Physical Therapy Association to support her research during a sabbatical this fall. Gordon received her physical therapy education at the University of Missouri and earned a master’s in college teaching at the University of North Carolina. She is scheduled to receive her doctorate from UMaine in May.