Language and culture are frameworks through which humans experience, communicate, and understand reality. - (Vygotsky)
The realities that we experience as humans are shaped by the language we use and the cultural milieus in which we find ourselves. The phenomenon is described in the opening quote attributed widely to Vygotsky but uncreate as to its exact origin. Vygotsky (1962; 1978) highlight similar themes. This is true for language scientists and clinicians whose culture is shaped by experiences associated with those roles, as well as for the populations with whom they work whose cultural experiences as people facing communicative challenges may be quite different. When people from different cultures come together, they often feel a degree of discomfort, as if each is "out of his [or her] element." The concept of cultural borderlands captures the elements of potential danger or risk these intersections represent, in which clients may be disempowered and experience Othering, whereas professionals who hold the credentials of expertise often assume the power of authority without awareness. Cultural borderlands, however, also may become places of opportunity where people can come together to collaborate to address mutually defined areas of need. Taking both positions, the articles in this issue are designed to jostle concepts and to make readers think more deeply about what may be everyday experiences.
Specifically, this issue of Topics in Language Disorders provides information about how people with communication disorders and the people who work with them experience and negotiate cultural borderlands and Othering. "Cultural borderlands," as described by Rosaldo (1989), is a place of change, displacement, dissonance, and change within and between communities. Similarly, Othering is defined as the action of associating other people as inferior to oneself or to another group of people (Mattingly, 2010). Issue editors, Drs. Dana Kovarsky and Irene Walsh, explain these concepts in great detail within their Issue Editor Foreword (Kovarsky & Walsh, 2018). Drs. Kovarsky and Walsh have invited authors to write relevant in-depth examples of these concepts and to summarize the issues at stake. Contributing authors provide a wide range of ideas and viewpoints related to these concepts that have implications for clinical practice and service delivery.
First, Pillay and Kathard (2018) explore the practice of speech-language pathology with an emphasis on promoting perspectives from the southern hemisphere. The authors discuss decoloniality in relation to the EPIC framework: Equitable, Population-based, and Innovations for Communication. Next, Smith (2018) provides a summary of critical aspects of cultural borderlands and othering as experienced by people who use augmentative and alternative communication. Isaksen (2018) follows with a description of conversations between speech-language pathologists and people with aphasia. The analysis focused on the presence of shared decision-making in conversations that took place as part of initiating the conclusion of therapy services. Finally, Walsh, Delmar, and Jagoe (2018) provide a detailed example of the process and interactions that took place between two of the authors-a speech-language pathologist and an adult with a diagnosis in adulthood of autism spectrum disorder. The description provides a rich perspective through narrative as the authors navigate culture and identity within a flexible and open therapeutic relationship.
The articles in this issue provide readers with a fresh perspective across many aspects of clinical experiences. The outcome of this intentional jostling of readers from their comfort zone is to reframe the subconscious sense of "how we have always done things around here," and disequilibrium can lead to change (Piaget, 1959).
-Sarah E. Wallace, PhD
Associate Editor
-Nickola Wolf Nelson, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
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