The Philosophy of Agency: Agency as a Protective Mechanism Against Clinical Trainees’ Moral Injury

Konopasky, Abigail; Bunin, Jessica; Varpio, Lara

doi:10.1007/978-981-19-1512-3_11

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…This study builds on literature demonstrating racism's pervasiveness in the health professions 35,36 and weaves agency into our understanding of CRT. Feelings of agency and control are critical to satisfaction, persistence, and achievement 24,28,37 ; and for Black faculty, who are disempowered within the hegemony of the academy, 38 these agency experiences are likely more difficult to obtain. Agency can further help us understand a growing area of study: the complexity of health professionals’ everyday acts of resistance to bring about change within their harmful and unjust systems 39 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agency is a critical part of teaching and clinical practice. [22][23][24][25] Faculty can exercise agency at the individual level, 17 the relational level (along with others), 26,27 and even the proxy level (naming others as their agency "proxy" for actions that may be difficult for them to take within an institution). 28 Yet, agency is socially situated and, as such, is bounded by social structures that can restrict its exercise.…”

Section: Theoretical and Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experiences of agency in historically underrepresented racial and ethnic dental faculty at predominantly white institutions

Yarbrough

Konopasky

Wyatt

2023

Journal of Dental Education

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Purpose/objectives Historically underrepresented racial and ethnic (HURE) dentists remain underrepresented in dental education and dental practice, and surprisingly, little is known about the factors that enable them to thrive. The lack of information about their experiences is a critical gap in the literature. The purpose of this critical qualitative study is to describe how HURE dental faculty in predominantly white institutions (PWIs) exercise agency to thrive and advance in academic promotion when faced with challenges and adversity in the workplace. Methods Thirteen semi‐structured interviews were conducted in 2021 and 2022 with HURE dental faculty from 10 different institutions. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the construct of agency and tenets of critical race theory to understand how they thrive in their institutions. Results HURE dental faculty experienced racism as normal from both faculty and students. Racism centered around white faculty guarding access to white spaces, including things that should be open to everyone like meetings and information about promotion. To counter this, HURE faculty engaged in individual agency by fighting for their perspectives to be heard, proxy agency by seeking and building relationships with mentors and colleagues who could use their whiteness to create change, and improvisational agency by going outside their institutions for support. Conclusion(s) To thrive in PWIs requires HURE faculty to exercise various forms of agency to directly or indirectly advocate for themselves as professionals. These findings have implications for dental leaders to change their existing structures and improve the work environments for HURE dental faculty.

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