Teaching the Teacher: Assessing Barriers to Identity Formation of Clinical Teachers in a Developing Country

Abstract

Phenomenon

Clinical teachers’ identity formation is understudied in developing countries like Pakistan. Despite producing thousands of international medical graduates per year, Pakistani medical education is still in its infancy. The application of Western medical education methods and theories is beset by unique socio-cultural challenges. These must be identified and addressed to ease our physicians’ transition from clinician to teacher and maximize their teaching output in a resource-limited setting.

Approach

Eight clinical teachers were interviewed from Combined Military Hospital Kharian, Punjab, Pakistan in July 2020. Semi-structured questionnaires were used, and interviews were audio-taped to generate transcripts. These were analyzed qualitatively and coded, developing themes regarding barriers to identity formation.

Findings

Six themes reflected possible barriers to identity formation and fell under two domains: individual and systemic issues. At the individual level these themes were: conflicting priorities, lack of autonomy, and language barriers. Systemic issues were found to be: disconnect between educationists and teachers, the absence of incentives, and lack of institutional support.

Insight

Identifying barriers to identity formation can aid clinical teachers’ development and encourage discourse around providing increased institutional support to teachers to overcome said barriers. Both the individual and the institute are stakeholders in the process of identity formation and dialogue between the two can lead to improved teaching outcomes.

Keywords:

• Barriers to medical education
• clinical teachers
• formal training
• identity formation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.