Cracks and crevices: Globalization discourse and medical education

Abstract

Globalization discourse, and its promises of a ‘flat world’, ‘borderless economy’ and ‘mobility of ideas and people’, has become very widespread in all fields. In medical education this discourse is underpinned by assumptions that medical competence has universal elements and that medical education can therefore develop ‘global standards’ for accreditation, curricula and examinations. Yet writers in the field other than medicine have raised a number of concerns about an overemphasis on the economic aspects of globalization. This article explores the notion that it is time to study and embrace differences and discontinuities in goals, practices and values that underpin medical competence in different countries and to critically examine the promises–realized or broken–of globalization discourse in medical education.

Notes

Notes

1. “Christophe Segouin” [email protected] “Christophe SEGOUIN” [email protected] “Tina MARTIMIANAKIS” [email protected] “Mohammad Alsuwaidan” [email protected] “Jerry Maniate” [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian David Hodges

BRIAN DAVID HODGES, MD, PhD, is Director and Scientist in Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto; Associate Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Psychiatry.

Jerry M. Maniate

JERRY M. MANIATE, MD, MEd, MA, MEd, is Fellow in Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto.

Maria Athina (Tina) Martimianakis

MARIA ATHINA (TINA) MARTIMIANAKIS, is Fellow in Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto.

Mohammad Alsuwaidan

MOHAMMAD ALSUWAIDAN, MD, is an Elective Student in Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto.

Christophe Segouin

CHRISTOPHE SEGOUIN, PhD, is Director of Public Health, Hôpital Lariboisière, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris; Affiliated Scholar in Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto.