Medical teachers’ identity learning during major curriculum renewal: A landscapes of practice perspective

Abstract

Purpose

To explore how medical teachers navigate their professional identities when required to implement critical pedagogy during an undergraduate curriculum renewal initiative.

Methods

A qualitative exploratory study was conducted, using focus groups and individual interviews with twenty-six purposively selected undergraduate medical teachers at a South African university. Data were transcribed, coded, and thematically analysed. Concepts of Landscapes of Practice Theory and Teacher Identity Learning provided an interpretive framework.

Results

Findings show that medical teachers’ perceived capacity to implement critical pedagogy was influenced by identities that were constructed within the boundaries of a traditional biomedical curriculum. Three themes were identified, highlighting the inherent liminality of traversing a changing educational landscape: engaging in new practices: moving into the boundary space; attempting alignment: navigating identity in the boundary space; imagining the future: embracing identity in the boundary space.

Conclusion

Globally directed curriculum renewal imperatives may challenge the established pedagogical practices and professional identities of medical teachers. There is a need for institutional spaces that foster collaboration, dialogue, and reflection with a view to supporting the ongoing identity learning and development of knowledgeability of medical teachers responsible for curriculum transformation.

Keywords:

• Medical teacher identity
• undergraduate curriculum renewal
• educational change
• landscapes of practice
• teacher identity learning

Acknowledgements

This article has emerged from work conducted as part of the Responsive Curriculum Project, a South African based multi-institutional project led by the Centre for Health Professions Education at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University in collaboration with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Sefako Makgathu University, the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape, and the University of the Witwatersrand. The authors wish to acknowledge and thank all the staff and participants in these different institutions. A special note of thanks to Professors Susan van Schalkwyk and Cecilia Jacobs for their insightful feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors report that this study was internally funded.

Notes on contributors

Mariette Volschenk

Mariette Volschenk, PhD, is a senior lecturer and programme leader of the MPhil in Health Professions Education Programme at the Centre for Health Professions Education at Stellenbosch University.

Anthea Hansen

Anthea Hansen, MPhil, is a lecturer and PhD candidate at the Centre for Health Professions Education at Stellenbosch University.