Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13, UK.
Management and Policy Division, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Jun 15;23(1):441. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04380-4.
Academic resilience is seen as a positive attribute that supports academic attainment and protects against attrition and burnout. Studies have reported that UK pharmacy students have lower academic resilience and wellbeing than the general UK student population but the reasons for this have not been established. This study pilots the use of a novel methodology, love and break-up letter methodology (LBM), to explore these issues focusing on the lived experience of pharmacy students.
Final year undergraduate pharmacy study were purposely recruited to the study. Employing LBM, each participant was invited to write reflective love and break-up letters to their academic resilience in higher education during a focus group. Letters and transcripts of subsequent focus group discussion on the feelings and ideas expressed in the letters were thematically analysed.
Three meta-themes were identified within the data; the curriculum as gas lighting; the curriculum as abusive; and the curriculum as controlling. Students described how the curriculum diminishes academic resilience by working against their sense of agency and self-esteem. A constant threat of failure emerged as defining the student lived experience; students felt controlled by a curriculum with negative impacts on wellbeing and perseverance.
This is the first study to use LBM to explore academic resilience in UK pharmacy students. The results provide evidence that some students view the pharmacy curriculum as a source of relentless adversity that is responsible for promoting a hidden negative connection between students and their education. Further study is required to determine if the results can be generalised across the UK pharmacy student body to explain why UK pharmacy students have lower academic resilience than other UK university students and the steps needed to improve academic resilience in UK pharmacy students.
学术韧性被视为一种积极的特质，它支持学业成绩，防止学生流失和倦怠。研究表明，英国药学专业的学生的学术韧性和幸福感比英国普通大学生群体要低，但原因尚未确定。本研究采用一种新的方法，即爱与分手信方法（LBM），探索这些问题，重点关注药学学生的真实体验。
我们特意招募了最后一年的药学专业本科生参加这项研究。采用 LBM，每位参与者都被邀请在焦点小组中给自己的高等教育学术韧性写一封反思的爱与分手信。随后，对信件中表达的情感和想法进行焦点小组讨论的记录和转录进行了主题分析。
数据中确定了三个元主题：课程是“煤气灯”；课程是“虐待”；课程是“控制”。学生们描述了课程是如何通过削弱他们的能动性和自尊心来降低学术韧性的。失败的持续威胁成为学生生活经历的定义；学生们感到被课程控制，这对他们的幸福感和毅力产生了负面影响。
这是第一项使用 LBM 来探索英国药学专业学生学术韧性的研究。研究结果表明，一些学生认为药学课程是一种无情的逆境之源，它导致了学生与教育之间的一种隐藏的负面联系。需要进一步研究以确定这些结果是否可以推广到英国药学专业的学生群体中，以解释为什么英国药学专业的学生的学术韧性比其他英国大学生低，以及提高英国药学专业学生学术韧性所需的步骤。
