The Role of Resistance in Medical, Legal, and Educator Professional Identity Formation: A Conversation in Chicago

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This combined Division I & K session is designed to examine the role and practices of “professional acts of resistance” to address systemic epistemological harm and material injustices within our training and educational programs. These acts can include direct forms of challenge, such as protests and strikes, or more subtle forms, like nonconformity, non-compliance, and “foot-dragging.” In each case, these acts are a conscious attempt to shift the dynamics and openly challenge the long-standing consequences of situational power relations reified by the extant literature and professional education research.
Drawing on the work of Chicago-based scholars across several fields of study (e.g., medical, legal, higher education), this session underscores the critical role resistance plays in professional identity formation, the role resistance plays in professions, and the need for educational researchers to capture the experiences of those who resist. As researchers, we need to focus our attention on how individual acts of resistance are transformed into collective action, how educators decide when to support resistors in their efforts, and the central role that research plays in unveiling our collective struggle to address systemic harm and injustice.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chairs

• Mildred Boveda, Pennsylvania State University

• Tasha R. Wyatt, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Participants

• Jeremiah Abiade, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Matthew Patrick Shaw, Vanderbilt Law School

• Nicole Perez, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Venus E. Evans-Winters, The Ohio State University

• Elizabeth Todd-Breland, University of Illinois at Chicago

Discussant

• Tia C. Madkins, University of Texas at Austin