Cross-cultural issues in professional development

Cross-cultural issues pervade choices made in regard to who gets "developed" professionally, for what end, and in what manner. This article is a case study of professional development in a health and family planning project in Nepal. The case study examines issues of interaction between "developers" and "developees," particularly differences in a fundamental way of thinking, influence of the dominant paradigm and ways and means of collaboration in cross-cultural interaction. The author analyzes cross-cultural collaboration in terms of three paradigms for the teaching/learning process: the technical, the interpretive and the strategic. Choice points are identified that required sensitivity to cross-cultural issues. The article concludes with a look at the impact of professional developmental in "developing" countries the building of a new professional identity in paraprofessionals.