The Key Literature in Medical Education podcast this week marks a collaboration with Medical Education. Every quarter, KeyLIME will review a Medical Education manuscript that has been accepted for publication, posting the review (nearly) simultaneous with the publication release. So if you’re looking for literature hot off the press… these articles are still smoking! (Please note, the KeyLIME hosts still enjoy unrestricted editorial license to critique and analyze these manuscripts.)
The first of these KeyLIME – Medical Education collaborations focuses on how individuals find themselves in a career in medical education, and what this all means. This episode was recorded at KeyLIME LIVE at ICRE 2015 with special guest Kevin Eva (details here and here.)
As always, subscribe to the podcast here. (And don’t forget to give us a 5 star rating.) If you’re in a rush, the abstract below captures all of the highlights. If you want access to the original article, Medical Education has provided free access as part of the collaboration (It’s available here).
-Jonathan (@sherbino)
KeyLIME Session 99 – Article under review:
View/download the abstract here.
Hu WCY, Thistlewaite JE, Weller J, Gallego G, Monteith J, McColl GJ. ‘It was serendipity’: A qualitative study of academic careers in medical education. Medical Education 2015: 49: 1124–1136
Reviewer: Kevin Eva
Background
Despite demand for educational expertise in medical universities, little is known of the medical educator roles and the sustainability of academic careers in medical education. Hu et al. examined the experiences and career paths of medical educators from diverse professional backgrounds seeking to establish, maintain and strengthen their careers in medical schools.
Purpose
Given that the demand for educational expertise has not led to well-established academic career pathways for medical educators and that the diversity of educator backgrounds is widely recognized, the authors sought to explore the range of academic roles and career pathways taken by a broad sample of educators in medical schools. Their research questions were: What are the roles and career paths taken by medical educators and the factors that influence these paths? What are the experiences of medical educators who seek a sustainable academic career, informed by established educational theory?
Type of Paper
Research: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 44 lead and early career medical educators from all 21 Australian and New Zealand medical schools
Key Points on the Method
– Questions explored career beginnings, rewards and challenges
– Analysis was informed by Bourdieu’s concepts of field (a social space for hierarchical interactions), habitus (individual dispositions which influence social interactions) and captial (economic, symbolic, social and cultural forms of power).
Key Conclusions
The authors conclude that Bourdieu’s theory provides insight into medical educator career paths and positioning of medical education within medical schools. With an indistinct practice, and limited cultural capital as research outputs, medical educators must develop alternative sources of capital through collaborative alliances to maintain and strengthen their careers.
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