'Clients' as teachers: Power-sharing in the speech-language therapy curriculum

The complex epistemological position of the speech-language therapy profession is suggested to affect the development of equitable power relations in practice. The case is made for the profession's understanding of its knowledge-base to potentially lead to a ''separation'' between therapist and citizen with issues of communication. As the primary site for students learning the epistemological position of the profession is during their education for practice, the argument is made for a consideration of epistemology to be made by professional education programs. This paper offers a description of the Client Tutor scheme at Charles Sturt University, an educational experience explicitly aimed at developing equitable power relations between ''client'' and aspirant practitioner. It reports upon how and why the Client Tutor scheme was introduced, and then discusses a key consequence of its implementation. This concerns the report from each tutor that their communication meaningfully improved, even though few if any traditional therapy tasks were involved in the communicative interactions of students with tutors.