Inclusion Oral Health – A Content Analysis of Australian Oral Health Therapy Curricula

Abstract

A generalised shift in pedagogy urges undergraduate University students to reflect upon their own epistemological perspective, not only to fulfill course requirements but to initiate themselves as reflective practitioners. It is also significant for teaching academics to know who their students are, and how they relate to the world to best support their learning journey. This study examines learning outcomes of Australian universities Oral Health Therapy curricula, and the overarching aims for graduate qualities of these programs. This research is based on a content analysis of curricula terms indicating ‘Inclusion Oral Health’ as a contributor to the teaching of injustices within the delivery of Oral Health Therapy curricula (Freeman et al., 2019 p.4). This study draws on Freeman’s definition of ‘Inclusion Oral Health’:

Inclusion Oral Health is based on a theoretically engaged understanding of how social exclusion is produced and experienced, and how forms of exclusion and discrimination intersect to compound Oral Health outcomes. Inclusion Oral Health focuses on developing innovative inter-sectoral solutions to tackle the inequalities of people enduring extreme Oral Health (Freeman et al., 2019, p. 4).

The publicly available learning outcomes from Australian Bachelor of Oral Health (BOH) programs were analysed to assess the presence of key themes, inclusions, and exclusions, via the application of a content analysis methodology. The preliminary results indicated that key terms such as social injustice and social exclusion were seldom included in Oral Health Therapy curricula learning outcomes in teaching institutions across the country and that cultural inclusions varied greatly across curricula. The content analysis findings indicated that, in general, the current learning outcomes of Australian Oral Health programs lack inclusiveness and fail to express a clear commitment to the implementation of inclusion oral health through their publicly available curricula.