Cultural safety education in the online space: using collaborative reflection to develop best practice

While substantial scholarship about online teaching exists, to date there has not been sustained engagement with how online classrooms mediate dimensions of cultural safety education, for students or teachers. In this presentation I report on a collaborative, mixed-methods research project which compares online and face-to-face delivery for ultural safety education. The aim of the project is to identify strengths and limitations of each format and support teachers who deliver this training. A collaborative team research process was used in the project. Tutors for units on cultural safety shared their written reflections about online teaching with other research participants and participated in collaborative reflective conversations. The method was not solely focused on data collection, but also aimed to cultivate a community of practice. The collaborative reflective conversations were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. The findings illustrate how the online space mediates teachers’ and students’ experiences of emotional labour, student resistance and co-learning, which are key dimensions of cultural safety education in shared physical spaces. The presentation concludes by outlining the contribution the project makes to the development of knowledge about best practice in relation to cultural safety training in the online space.