Motivating the Growth of a Complementary Professional Identity: The Health-Care Professional as a Teacher

• In Event: The Interplay of Motivation and Identity: Perspectives on How It Matters for Students and Teachers

Abstract

Healthcare professionals (HPs) spend years learning their profession, forming a professional identity. However, do these same HPs also see themselves as teachers? Why would this be important, what obstacles make adopting a teacher identity challenging, and how can HPs be motivated to develop as teachers? The purpose of this study was to explore the research literature for why teacher identity is important as a motivating force and to examine various ways to develop and support a teacher identity in HPs.
We conducted a content analysis in prominent higher education and health science education journals using the search word “teacher identity”. Results from 32 articles were summarized examining the importance of a teacher identity in HPs and how to support it from two perspectives. First, applying the research of van Lankveld et al. (2017), a social-relational perspective stating teacher identity requires a sense of being appreciated, connected, competent, committed and seeing a future trajectory. Second, applying the MUSIC Model of Motivation, where motivation is enhanced by eMpowering learners, demonstrating the Usefulness of the material, supporting learners’ Success, triggering learner Interest, and showing Caring for the learner (Jones, 2009). Applying these principles in a specific domain has been shown to predict the learner’s identification with that domain (Jones et al., 2014).
Results indicated that teacher identity is essential because identity is linked to motivation, driving the choices and energies that HPs make to further develop their teaching skills (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Steinert et al., 2019). Teacher identity formation in HPs appears most limited by a lack of pedagogy. Other obstacles are low pay and prestige of educators when compared to practitioners and researchers, competing identities, lack of community, and lack of institutional support for teaching responsibilities. Suggestions for how to support teacher identity, the articles supporting those suggestions, and value judgments of how the suggestions relate to van Lankveld et al. and the MUSIC Model principles are listed in Table 1. Suggestions include acknowledging good teaching, supporting communities of practice and mentoring, providing skills training based on prior skills assessment and perceived teachers’ needs, encouraging regular reflection, encouraging autonomous teaching practice as skills develop, and providing an environment that cares for teachers (Snook et al., 2022). It seems most desirable when an individual sees their healthcare profession and teacher identity as complementary (van Lankveld et al., 2021). It is suggested that HPs reflect on why both identities are important to them and how being a better teacher makes them a better HP and vice versa.
Most suggestions addressed issues related to competence, stressing its importance in identity formation. Communities of practice and mentoring addressed most all the areas identified by van Lankveld and the MUSIC Model. If we want to motivate our HPs to invest in being good teachers, we need to make opportunities for them to learn and grow as teachers, be supported and cared for by their university and peers, and encourage individual and corporate reflection on how their identities as a HP and teacher are complementary.

Authors

• Abigail Grover Snook, University of Iceland

• Asta B. Schram, University of Iceland

• Sólveig Ása Árnadóttir, University of Iceland