Looking back to move forward: Using history, discourse and text in medical education research: AMEE Guide No. 73

Abstract

As medical education research continues to diversify methodologically and theoretically, medical education researchers have been increasingly willing to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about the form, content and function of medical education. In this AMEE Guide we describe historical, discourse and text analysis approaches that can help researchers and educators question the inevitability of things that are currently seen as 'natural'. Why is such questioning important? By articulating our assumptions and interrogating the 'naturalness' of the status quo, one can then begin to ask why things are the way they are. Researchers can, for example, ask whether the models of medical education organization and delivery that currently seem 'natural' to them have been developed in order to provide the most benefit to students or patients -or whether they have, rather, been developed in ways that provide power to faculty members, medical schools or the medical profession as a whole. An understanding of the interplay of practices and power is a valuable tool for opening up the field to new possibilities for better medical education. The recognition that our current models, rather than being 'natural', were created in particular historical contexts for any number of contingent reasons leads inexorably to the possibility of change. For if our current ways of doing things are not, in fact, inevitable, not only can they be questioned, they can be made better; they can changed in ways that are attentive to whom they benefit, are congruent with our current beliefs about best practice and may lead to the production of better doctors.Let us give the term genealogy to the union of erudite knowledge and local memories which allow us to establish a historical knowledge of struggles and to make use of this knowledge tactically today.

Representations of disability and normality in rehabilitation technology promotional materials

“…These effects are powerful, in that they shape individuals' and groups' attitudes, beliefs, learning processes and actions [19]. Using CDA, we examined the relations between language, practices and power to illuminate the way that discourses make certain messages/ expectations about disability and normalization appear to be irrefutable [5].…”

“…Note the value placed on independence, technology and/or special equipment as a necessity, and the medicalization of disability (or more accurately ''impairment'') as something in need of being ''treated'' or fixed. Rehabilitation discourses (forms of language, texts and images that together constitute ways of thinking about knowledge and social practices, and produce ''truths'' or ''norms'' that constrain and enable [5,6]) inherently assume that disabled people want, have the right, and should receive intervention to be enabled or rehabilitated, ''back to normal'' [2].…”

Humanism, the Hidden Curriculum, and Educational Reform

“…[44][45][46] Scoping reviews are broad explorations to systematically map a topic area, identifying key concepts, trends, and gaps. Critical discourse analysis is used to identify and describe patterns in the application of terms and concepts in texts.…”

How changing quality management influenced PGME accreditation: a focus on decentralization and quality improvement

“…As is common practice in discourse analysis, we included both primary (1, 2, 3 and 7) and secondary (4, 5, and 6) documents [35]. The primary documents are the most relevant texts for the research question, and the secondary documents are helpful to understand the phenomenon under study [35].…”