Abstract
Objectives: Professional identity can be defined as a developmental process. Literature suggests that residents aiming to practice in a teaching institution should receive support for the development of teaching competencies as much as they do for medical competencies, but there is limited data on how to recognize teacher identity development in residents. Our study focused on the manifestations of teacher identity development in a group of senior residents in a four-week optional pedagogy rotation. In particular, we were interested in seeing teacher identity development towards the end of the residency program, at a time when clinician identity begins to consolidate. Methods: A qualitative and exploratory approach guided our study design. Participants were internal medicine residents, (from Yr4 to Yr6) at University of Montréal, who intended working in a university setting and were interested in developing a teaching project. Focus groups were held at three separate moments: 1) before rotation, 2) after rotation and, 3) six months after rotation. Direct content analysis was chosen to analyze our findings. Results: We observed the emergence and the evolution of teacher identity and furthermore, we identified six development pathways, which underpin the development of teacher professional identity: 1) From awkward and stereotyped usage to mastery of concepts and teaching techniques, 2) From the reproduction of implicit norms of the clinical setting to the establishment of pedagogical norms 3) From the feeling of powerlessness in teaching to a feeling of mastery and taking initiatives 4) From teaching intuitively to reasoning pedagogically 5) From a teacher based paradigm to the discovery of the learner-centered paradigm and 6) From an emerging identity as a clinician to the simultaneous construction of twin identities: clinician and teacher. Six development indicators providing operational cues to help recognize different facets of teacher identity development were then identified. Conclusion: The identity development pathways allowed us to gain deeper insights about how teacher identity develops in internal medicine residents toward the end of a pedagogical rotation. It is our hope that these findings will help educators recognize and support the development of teacher identity in their residents.
Highlights
METHODProfessional identity can be viewed as “a developmental process, during which novices acquire specific knowledge and skills, develop new attitudes and values, and take on a self-concept associated with the new career role”[1,2]
Our study aimed to explore how senior residents, participating in a pedagogy rotation, perceive the process of teacher identity development
Our study focused on an optional 4 week pedagogy rotation at the Faculty of medicine at the University of Montréal, as well as the six-month period immediately following the end of the rotation
Summary
Professional identity can be viewed as “a developmental process, during which novices acquire specific knowledge and skills, develop new attitudes and values, and take on a self-concept associated with the new career role”[1,2]. This identity is comprised of external elements coming from the discipline, and internal ones coming from within the individual[1,3,4,5]. Based on qualitative evidence suggesting that excellent clinical teachers have a strong sense of teacher identity[9], Starr et al.[1,2] uncovered evidence of internal and external elements of teacher identity in a group of experienced faculty members identified as good teachers. They described seven features of teacher identity: 1) intrinsic satisfaction derived from teaching, 2) knowledge and skills about teaching, 3) sense of belonging to a community of teachers, 4) receiving rewards and recognition for their teaching, 5) believing that being a doctor means being a teacher, 6) seeing teaching as a responsibility, and 7) sharing clinical expertise[1]
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