Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This introductory chapter opens with a discussion of the processes of internationalisation and globalisation that frame the growth in interest in educational placements. It situates student mobility within this wider context before examining the meaning of the term ‘elective’ and examining the ethical issues that such placements raise.

This chapter introduces the reader to the Ethical Educational Placement (EEP) project, beginning with the background and its development. We then outline the project concept and detail its operation in terms of: how risk was assessed; how student recruitment and selection was organised; placement locations and student cohorts; placement structures and activities in Uganda and India; placement costs and student contributions; and project evaluation.

This chapter focuses on what students learn from educational placements in low resource settings. The term ‘learning’ is used quite fluidly to embrace wider experiential learning – what students often describe as ‘life changing’ or ‘transformational’ impacts (Hudson and Inkson 2006) and more specific curriculum or employment relevant skills. We draw on reviewed literature, and qualitative data generated before, during and after placements, with students, placement leads at sending universities, long-term volunteer supervisors and educationalists/health workers in the host settings. The qualitative findings are supplemented with quantitative data gathered via an online student survey.

Chapter 4 focuses on the ethical aspects of the EEPs concept to ask how and under what circumstances hosting undergraduate students from high resource settings can be of benefit to hosting locations in low resource settings. To the extent that there is a literature on this aspect – and there is little – there is some suggestion that electives may be of no direct benefit and, indeed, may have a negative impact on already resource-constrained contexts. Why should low resource settings subsidise the burden of training healthcare students in resource rich countries? There may be alternative ways of mitigating this potential imbalance through cash payments (income) or by restricting students to observational-only opportunities. The chapter reviews the EEP intervention from the perspective of hosts identifying approaches which may be of reciprocal benefit.

This final chapter summarises some of the key messages discussed in previous chapters to consider the meaning of ethics in the context of educational placements. It identifies some of the challenges associated with the commodification of placements through volunteer tourism distinguishing these from ‘Fair Trade Learning’ founded on reciprocity.