Utopianism and pragmatism in interprofessional education

Abstract

Definitions of interprofessionalism tend either to be vague and ambiguous or to ignore key stakeholders such as service users. The authors suggest that a combination of unsound theorising and lack of empirical data mean it is time to introduce a new approach to the study of interprofessional education. They argue that the search for a single factor common to all members of the interprofessional 'family' should be abandoned in favour of a re-conceptualisation of interprofessionalism as a 'family' of similarities and differences. This Wittgensteinian approach is used to look at the different ways programmes of education and training address interprofessional identities and cross-boundary roles and relationships. The centrality of one or the other is seen as indicating a certain kind of philosophical scaffolding within the educational culture of a programme and two case studies are used to explore the impact of Pragmatism and Utopianism. The case studies are drawn from the authors' experiences as teachers and examine how educational culture is shaped by primary philosophical positions. Finally, the implications of this for the future development of social work education are briefly considered.