The politics of resistance to workplace cultural diversity education for health service providers: an Australian study

This qualitative study has as its focus an exploration of health service providers’ perceptions and experiences of the processes and implications of delivering workplace cultural diversity education for staff. Data were obtained from conducting in‐depth individual and focus group interviews with a purposeful sample of 137 healthcare professionals, recruited from over 17 different organizational sites. Participants included cultural diversity educators, ethnic liaison officers, health service managers, nurses, health interpreters, allied health professionals, and community‐based ethnic welfare organization personnel working in or with select metropolitan health services in Victoria, Australia. Analysis of the data revealed that workplace cultural diversity education in healthcare is a significant site of resistance and struggle. ‘Resistance’ was expressed in several forms including: the problematization of resources and staff availability to attend cultural diversity education forums; indifferent failure to recognize cultural imperatives in healthcare; deliberate refusal to recognize cultural imperatives in healthcare; selective recognition of cultural imperatives in healthcare (‘facts sheets’ only); and the angry rejection of cultural imperatives in healthcare. ‘Struggle’, in turn, largely involved cultural diversity educators having to constantly ‘cajole and convince’ (and even manipulate) staff to attend cultural diversity education forums and using a ‘velvet glove and iron fist’ approach to teaching staff who remained resolute in their resistance when participating in educational forums. An important implication of this study is that the politics of workplace cultural diversity education – and the ‘politics of resistance’ to such programs – need to be better recognized and understood if the status quo is to be successfully challenged and changed. The need for critical debate and further comparative research on the subject are also highlighted.