Making sense of differences between medical schools through Bourdieu's concept of 'field'.

Medical Education
Caragh Brosnan

Abstract

Most basic medical education studies focus on one medical school, and the social and educational significance of differences between schools remains poorly understood. Sociologists have called for more comparative studies and for research on the institutional context of medical education. This paper introduces Bourdieu's concept of 'field' as a tool for conducting such analyses. A 'field' is any arena in which there is a struggle over resources (capital), akin to a 'game' between players who occupy different positions depending on the resources they have. Prior studies show that higher education institutions compete in a field for various forms of capital which are reflected in their curricula and the students they attract. This paper argues that medical education can be conceptualised as a field within which medical schools compete for different forms of capital, such as students, funding and prestige. The structure of the UK medical education field is analysed as a specific example of how Bourdieu's framework can be applied. It is argued that UK medical schools' varying curricula and admissions criteria serve to distinguish them from their competitors and to facilitate access to different forms of capital. Competition within ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 2, 2011·Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges·Brian David Hodges, Ayelet Kuper
Aug 24, 2012·Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges·Saleem RazackYvonne Steinert
Jun 29, 2013·Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges·Brian M WongKaveh G Shojania
Oct 1, 2010·Medical Education·P Ravi Shankar, Trilok P Thapa
Jul 20, 2010·Medical Education·Mathieu Albert, Scott Reeves
Jul 20, 2010·Medical Education·Steve Trumble
Nov 18, 2010·Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care·Anders Baerheim
Sep 10, 2014·Advances in Health Sciences Education : Theory and Practice·Sarah Wright
May 30, 2015·Social Science & Medicine·Kelly Underman
Nov 3, 2016·Medical Teacher·Marian Mahat, Hamish Coates
Dec 17, 2016·Perspectives on Medical Education·Dorene F BalmerBoyd F Richards
Jan 3, 2013·Medical Education·Sarah YardleyJane Richardson
Nov 25, 2014·The Clinical Teacher·Laura-Jane SmithTim Vincent
Oct 24, 2015·Medical Education·Wendy C Y HuGeoff J McColl
Nov 5, 2016·Advances in Health Sciences Education : Theory and Practice·Barbara GriffinWendy Hu
Jun 11, 2020·Ciência & saúde coletiva·Marcia Villanueva, Roberto Castro
Mar 28, 2019·Advances in Health Sciences Education : Theory and Practice·Gillian AitkenSarah Henderson
Sep 17, 2021·Journal of Health and Social Behavior·Tania M JenkinsLaura E Hirshfield

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