Teaching Beyond the Textbook: Public Health Pedagogical Strategies for a Multicultural Landscape

As the national population grows more demographically and culturally diverse, it is critical that public health and health promotion students are equipped to engage with people from varied demographic and cultural backgrounds. One approach to address this need is the utilization of pedagogical approaches that promote cultural responsiveness and facilitate opportunities to apply course material to a multicultural environment. We posit that pedagogical strategies should apply a multicultural lens to real-life healthcare issues, while simultaneously prioritizing experiential learning. Our recommendation is to utilize the integration of two pedagogical approaches: Gay’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and Kolb’s Experiential Learning approaches to integrate diverse student experiences in course assessments, and to promote cultural responsiveness as an outcome in health promotion courses. This paper will examine the application of the integration of the two frameworks in university level health promotion courses.