Culturally Responsive Teaching in STEM for HSIs

NURS 143: Leadership & Management in Nursing

School of Nursing, High Context/Low Context

Reflection on Instructional Change:

During the Escala Course, I realized I've been teaching in a very low context matter. Edward T Hall found particular differences between cultures in communication and cognition. He created a continuum he called HIGH and LOW context frameworks.

High context cultures pay a lot of attention to contextual clues and the contextual variables: body language, a person's status, and tone of voice.

Low context cultures communicate primarily through language and rules that are explicitly spelled out

In the past, I would try to get the students to summarize the situation quickly and I would help them determine a solution. This is particularly seen in clinical where the students are working with me, the faculty, and a Registered Nurse, their preceptor for the day.

To identify this change, I have asked students to share more of their feelings in the situation and the hierarchy and how to communicate in this situation. It's important for students to communicate clearly during the clinical day.

This course helped me identify some major communication issues I was missing with my students. I'm hoping I can take more time with students during situations and allow them to share. Of course this depends on the situation. Often in nursing, we need to get low context for the best patient outcomes.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
	Goal: Teach students to be able to summarize situation in a few words, but allow them to debrief the entire experience to share context.

**Faculty Bio**
	Dr. Bridget Parsh is Professor in the School of Nursing, and author of more than 80 peer-reviewed publications. She has experience in pediatric nursing, research, clinical nursing for pediatrics, and first year college student experience. At Sacramento State she teaches NURS 138 (pediatric nursing), NURS 120, and in the MSN and RN to BSN program. From 2012 to 2019, she was Director of First Year Experience, and works closely with students interested in the nursing major. Dr Parsh has a daughter who is an OR RN in San Diego, a son who graduated from Sac State in Political Science (then moved to Washington, DC), a husband who works for the Sac City Unified School District, and a pug named Bubbles. She loves to travel (especially to Italy), go to concerts, and stand up paddle board on the American River.

This work was supported by grant funding from:
	STEM4Equity: US Dept. of Education STEMHSI P031C210012 NSF STEMZone: 1832335 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, or Sacramento State.