Building competence through cross-cultural collaboration in the aftermath of a tsunami: Experiences of Indonesian teachers

Summary m of this study was to describe the reported experiences of Indonesian nursing teachers who participated in a two-year cross-cultural project designed to build pedagogical and professional competence after the tsunami in Aceh province in 2004. Indonesian teachers who had participated in the competence project answered an open-ended questionnaire in November 2007. The data were analyzed by qualitative content analysis, and the main theme “an empowered nursing teacher” emerged. The teachers expressed positive experiences, as having more self confidence, feeling inspired to develop oneʹs potentiality and feeling strength and happiness in oneʹs work. The theme constituted four categories: “encouraged by collaboration and teamwork”, “more independent as a teacher”, “encouraged by more active students” and, “inspired to develop further competence”. erall result showed that the teachers in the competence developing project reported mostly positive experiences by participating in the project. However, two years is a short time to develop both pedagogical and professional competence. They expressed a desire to continue building their competence, especially in direct clinical practice.