What knowledge matters in health professions education?

ABSTRACT

What knowledge matters in health professions education is an issue of debate in the literature, foregrounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and informed by calls for students who are not only clinically competent, but also critically conscious of global health inequity. Building on this work, this paper explores what kinds of knowledge are legitimated in two health science programmes at a South African university. Thirty-four health professions teachers participated in the study. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) Specialisation was used as an analytical framework, with Epistemic and Social Relations as coding categories. Results revealed the dominance of a knowledge code, with the social dispositions and attributes relating to the development of critical consciousness often not considered knowledge at all. Our contention is that both knowledge and social dispositions are equally important in the development of future healthcare professionals and that collaborative curriculum conversations are needed to enable them being interwoven throughout curricula.

ISISHWANKATHELO

Ulwazi olubalulekileyo kwiMfundo yobuGcisa bezeMpilo ngumba wengxoxo-mpikiswano kokubhalwe ziinkcuba-buchopho kwimfundo, oye wabekwa elubala ngubhubhane we-COVID-19, ebangele ukuba kuhlatywe ikhwelo kubafundi abangaqeqeshelwanga bugcisa bezempilo nje kuphela, koko abanengqwalasela ehlalutya ihlabe amadlala kwiinkalo zonke malunga nokungalungelaniswa kokungalingani kwezeMpilo kwihlabathi liphela. Ukongeza kulo msebenzi, eli phepha liphonononga ukuba hlobo luni lolwazi olwamkeleke ngokusemthethweni kwiinkqubo ezimbini zeenzululwazi kwezeMpilo kwiyunivesithi ethile yaseMzantsi Afrika. Abahlohli bezempilo abangamashumi amathathu anesine bathathe inkxaxheba kolu phando. Kusetyenziswe ubungcali ekuthiwa yi-Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) njengesakhelo sohlalutyo esingumkhomba-dlela, kunye ne-Epistemic noNxibelelwano lweNtlalo, kuhlelwa ngokweempawu ezithile. Iziphumo zophando zibonise ukuba luphawu lolwazi oluthe longamela kolu phando, ngakumbi isimo sentlalo kwakunye neempawu ezithe zagqama, ezinxulumene nophuhliso lokuqwalasela nzulu imiba, luhlalutye luhlabe amadlala nkalo-zonke, amaxesha amaninzi olu lwazi alubonelwa ukuba luphuhliswe kwaphela. Apho sigqale khona kukuba olu lwazi kwakunye nezimo zentlalo zibaluleke ngokulinganayo ekuphuhliseni abo abaseza kuthatha izifundo zobuGcisa bezeMpilo yaye kudingeka iingxoxo nentsebenziswano kuqulunqo lwekharityhulam ukuze kubelula ukuba le miba ithungelane kwiikharityhulam.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge
• curriculum
• critical consciousness
• legitimation code theory
• health professions education

Acknowledgements

This article has emerged from work conducted as part of the Responsive Curriculum Project which is 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 all of the staff in these different institutions who participated in the study. The authors also wish to acknowledge Fezeka Dyubeni for her meticulous translation of the abstract into isiXhosa.

Disclosure statement

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