Global Health Issues

Reaction and reflection #1 questions

Students will be required to demonstrate evidence of critical analysis as evidenced by the ability to relate their reactions to the assigned readings to Western ethnocentrism and exceptionalism. Students need to respond with a 2-3 paragraph answer to each of the questions. Ideas taken from the readings need to be cited using APA format.

1) Martin notes that “Learning, rather than being an exchange, becomes an act of consumption… the problem lies in the assumption that marginalized people are always at the ready to enlighten the privileged.” (1.5 pts)

Reaction	Q. What do you think she means by these statements?
	A.
Reflection	Q. Do you think that it is the job of marginalized persons to enlighten relatively wealthy, privileged Westerners?
	A.

2) Physicist Robert A. Millikan notes that “Fullness of knowledge always and necessarily means some understanding of the depths of our ignorance, and that is always conducive to both humility and reverence.” Humility, according to Martin, is our capacity to know that there is much we don’t know, and act accordingly. (1.5 pts)

Reaction	Q. Do you think that Americans have trouble with both intellectual and cultural humility?
	A.
Reflection	Q. What are some aspects of the American educational system that may foster this lack of humility?
	A.

3) Martin notes that “often…the best thing you can do as a privileged outsider is step back, shut up, even leave.” (1.5 pts)

Reaction	Q. What is your reaction to this statement?
	A.
Reflection	Q. Why do you think you are reacting this way to the statement?
	A.

4) Teja Cole writes that “The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege”. (1.5 pts)

Reaction	Q. What is your immediate reaction to this statement? What do you think he means by this statement?
	A.
Reflection	Q. Do you think that global health educational programs may possibly be just “big emotional experiences” that validate our Western privilege? Why or why not?
	A.

5) Teja Cole notes that “The American’s good heart does not always allow him to think constellationally. He does not connect the dots or see the patterns of power behind the isolated "disasters." All he sees are hungry mouths, and he… is putting food in those mouths as fast as he can. All he sees is need, and he sees no need to reason out the need for the need.” (2 pts)

Reaction	Q. What is your reaction to this statement? What do you think he means by this?
	A.
Reflection	Q. What do you think it means to “reason out the need for the need”? What might be some reasons that Americans might not see the need to “reason out the need for the need”?
	A.

6. Courtney Martin discusses the “reductive seduction” of other people’s problems. (2 pts)

Reaction	Q. What do you think she means by “reductive seduction”? What does it mean to be reductively seduced by the problems of people on the other side of the world?
	A.
Reflection	Q. Why do you think that well-intentioned young Americans often engage in the reductive seduction of other people’s problems? What might be the unintended consequences of engaging in that reductive seduction?
	A.

Grading rubric

Element	Points
Student answers each question	6
Reflection answers show evidence of critical analysis as evidenced by: Ability to relate issues discussed by the article authors to the effects of Western ethnocentrism and exceptionalism	4