Journal Club 9: Beyond the Melting Pot and Salad Bowl Views of Cultural Diversity: Advancing Cultural Diversity Education of Nutrition Educators

(Recorded 4/9/18)

Speaker: Kelebogile Setiloane, PhD, University of Delaware

This presentation describes how the cultural views of cultural diversity have influenced how nutrition educators have been trained in cultural competence and how this training needs to change because of the changing demographics of the US population. It explores how these views are changing in reaction to the changing demographics and health disparities seen in the US today and how the cultural training of nutrition educators has not kept up with these changing views. Suggestions for how this cultural education could be modified include placing a greater emphasis on both the cultural self-awareness of nutrition educators and the sociopolitical historical factors that influence the cultural orientation of nutrition educators and their clients.

Learning Objectives

Describe how the description of cultural diversity in the US has shifted from being viewed as a 'melting pot' to a 'salad bowl' and how this has affected the cultural education of nutrition educators.

Identify why it is important for nutrition educators and health professionals to learn about their own cultural and ethnic background and become more self aware as a cultural being.

List the core elements in creating a cultural education for nutrition educators that is aligned to today's changing US demographics.

Kelebogile Setioloane, PhD, University of Delaware

Kelebogile Setiloane, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Nutrition in the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware. Her work focuses on the nutritional health and livelihoods of low income women and children in Africa and the United States. A native of South Africa, Dr. Setiloane earned her doctorate from Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in the area of Malnutrition and Socioeconomic Development with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. She is committed to using her academic expertise and lived experience in Apartheid South Africa, and other parts of the world, to increase the awareness, knowledge and understanding between health professionals, who often use western biomedical modes of knowledge and their clients who use traditional cultural knowledge patterns. She has recently developed and taught for the first time this semester, a new course titled 'Cultural Awareness for Health and Healthcare.'

On the webinar an attendee asked if the presenter was familiar with the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge. For more information on this challenge click here.