Hidden Curriculum and Medical Students of Color: Social Identity Theory Synthesis in Literature and Praxis

• In Event: Common Ground on Diversity: Research on Inclusiveness in Professions Education

Abstract

This conceptual paper offers a synthesis and re-conceptualization of Hafferty’s hidden curriculum in medical education. The author uses social identity theory to construct a new understating of hidden curriculum as a racial and cultural biased socialization process driven by the current curricular design and practitioner literature. The paper further examines the multiple identities medical students of color bring to medical education, as both a physician in training and a person of color through the lens of social identity theory. This will allow for a new conceptual perspective of the hidden curriculum literature in light of how students of color operationalize, survive, and resist the professional socialization in medical education.

Author

• Jennifer Eliason, University of Maryland - College Park