Chapter 8: Global Health Intervention From Global North To South: (Academic) Preparation of Students

In this chapter, we propose to contribute to an understanding of intervention across geographical borders by presenting a case of training and preparation of university students, who are potential workers in NGOs, the private sector, and governmental organizations. Our objective is to examine how our pioneer course collaboration at Roskilde University (Denmark) between the subjects Health Promotion and International Development Studies can help prepare students for future practice in global health, through a course titled Global Health: Promotion, Practice, and Power.

With the point of departure in the aims of the course, in this chapter we first briefly introduce the orientation and history of the two subjects at Roskilde University where the authors teach, followed by a short history and dynamics of the collaboration. These sections illustrate some obstacles, dilemmas and possibilities related to the proposed practices. We then outline the theoretical foundations of the course and explain how the course is framed around a critical conceptualization of globalisation and a contextualization of today’s global health practice. We discuss in detail how to focus on both sides in the intervention encounter, illustrating how students’ interactive participation is central to opening up a space where issues of power and identity in the encounter of global health interventions can be critically examined and reflected upon. Furthermore, an evaluation of the course by both students and the teachers is presented. We conclude the chapter by critically discussing the potential of analytic generalisation from the experience of running this course.