Negotiation of learning and identity among first-year medical students

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2013

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Teaching in Higher Education

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Taylor & Francis

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University of Cape Town

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Abstract
The demand for medical schools to produce competent doctors to meet health needs in South Africa has increased. In response to this challenge, the Faculty of Health Sciences at a relatively elite university introduced a problem-based, socially relevant curriculum in 2002. The classroom environment is designed to facilitate a learning context where students from diverse backgrounds engage critically and learn from each other. This study draws on data from a larger qualitative case study to describe how a group of 'black' students who failed their first semester experienced the school–university transition. Drawing on post-structuralist theory, this article analyses how the students negotiated learning and identity. The argument is made that the students re-positioned themselves in deficit, outsider subject positions in order to survive their first year. This article ends with a consideration of the implications for developing a learning environment which recognises difference and fosters diversity.
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This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Teaching in Higher Education on 2 January 2013 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13562517.2012.753050.

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