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Background: Sociocultural theories state that learning results from people participating in contexts where social interaction is facilitated. There is a need to create such facilitated pedagogical spaces where participants can share their ways of knowing and doing. The aim of this exploratory study was to introduce pedagogical space for sociocultural interaction using 'Identity Text'.
Methods: Identity Texts are sociocultural artifacts produced by participants, which can be written, spoken, visual, musical, or multimodal. In 2013, participants of an international medical education fellowship program were asked to create their own Identity Texts to promote discussion about participants' cultural backgrounds. Thematic analysis was used to make the analysis relevant to studying the pedagogical utility of the intervention.
Result: The Identity Text intervention created two spaces: a 'reflective space', which helped participants reflect on sensitive topics such as institutional environments, roles in interdisciplinary teams, and gender discrimination, and a 'narrative space', which allowed participants to tell powerful stories that provided cultural insights and challenged cultural hegemony; they described the conscious and subconscious transformation in identity that evolved secondary to struggles with local power dynamics and social demands involving the impact of family, peers, and country of origin.
Conclusion: While the impact of providing pedagogical space using Identity Text on cognitive engagement and enhanced learning requires further research, the findings of this study suggest that it is a useful pedagogical strategy to support cross-cultural education.
Keywords: educational cultural hegemony; pedagogical space; cross-cultural education; sociocultural theory; discourse analysis
In health professions education, new academic partnerships between North American and European institutions and health centers in developing countries have emerged (1, 2). This globalization is ushering in an increasingly interconnected world with complexities for cross-cultural communication in both face-to-face and online settings (3, 4). Exploring and understanding cultural difference have been noted as critical for establishing trust and determining long-term success of educational programs (1, 2, 5, 6). It is of note that when trust is undermined in multicultural learning environments, learners from minority backgrounds have reported increased depression, anxiety, hypertension, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and pain conditions (7-9).
Dogra and colleagues have recently published AMEE Guide No. 103 for assisting faculty in designing, delivering, and assessing diversity curricula (10). They note that 'course design is not value free or unbiased as it...