Erol Dulagil
It was an easy decision to study at one of the best health faculties in Australia.
Key research areas/interests: Power, practice and place in aged care; Ethnogerontology; Anthropology; linguistics and history.
Principal Supervisor: Professor Joanne Travaglia
Summary of research project
‘How are care practices in an ethnic-specific aged care facility affected by relationships of power between stakeholders with different language skills and cultural expectations?’
I want to consider how Australian aged care staff of many different cultures and nationalities practice care with residents who live within an ethnic-specific aged care facility, where a specific language is spoken or a specific culture is practiced. With my research, the questions I would like to address are: how does a dominant and official language or culture direct or change the way multicultural staff work, and how do notions of power and privacy work around a dominant language or culture?
Why did you decide to embark on your research degree at the Faculty of Health at UTS?
I have worked in ESL teaching and aged care and my experiences in both inspired me to cast a critical eye on how people communicate and practice in aged care contexts. I have been working as a casual academic here at the faculty of Health for a couple of years so it was an easy decision to study at one of the best health faculties in Australia.
What contribution to knowledge are you planning to make with your research project? What impact / change might that bring about?
There is very little research on ethnic-specific care facilities, where care is conducted primarily in the context of one language or culture. Culturally and linguistically diverse elderly (CaLD) are increasing in number so there will be a greater need for ethnic-specific aged care in the future. Aged care facilities are generally very complex care locations and to insert a dominant culture or language into what is a very multicultural and multi-faceted workplace context is, in my opinion, a fascinating notion that crosses so many different disciplines such as healthcare and gerontology, linguistics and anthropology, geography and architecture.
Who will benefit from your research? How?
A clearer understanding of the context of work practice and communication in an ethnic-specific facility will hopefully help nurse educators and facility managers to develop more appropriate learning and work strategies for multicultural care staff. I also hope that my research might encourage academics in other disciplines to explore the ethnic-specific facility from different perspectives, as it is an underexplored environment.
How did you go about selecting your supervisor?
I have two supervisors. Jo Travaglia is my principal supervisor, who I heard about through various staff in the faculty. She has always been enthusiastic about my ideas and approaches them from a sociological perspective. My other supervisor is Alastair Pennycook from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. I completed a Masters of Applied Linguistics at UTS a few years ago, so I know that Alastair has shown a keen interest in exploring language and linguistics in other disciplines. Health care is really fascinating research area for linguists, in my opinion.
What has been the most valuable part of your research student experience at the Faculty of Health at UTS?
I was so pleased to discover the Research student space on the third floor. What a haven!
What advice would you give to future research students thinking about starting a higher degree in research at the Faculty of Health?
Develop a research topic that you will really enjoy researching and writing about. Start writing straight away, even if what you write will not be relevant to your degree. Writing leads to very deep thinking, so if you get into the habit of writing from the beginning, you are developing your language skills, producing material and developing your thinking.
