Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Teach Learn Med. 2024 Oct-Dec;36(5):660-668. doi: 10.1080/10401334.2023.2230211. Epub 2023 Jul 9.
Triggered by the lived experiences of the authors-one junior career, female, and black; the other senior career, male, and black-we provide a critical, sociological overview of the plight of racial/ethnic minority students in medical education. We analyze the concepts of categorization, othering, and belonging in medical education, which we use to shed light on the psychological and academic consequences of overgeneralizing social categories.
The ability to categorize people into different social groups is a natural, subconscious phenomenon. Creating social groups is believed to aid people in navigating the world. This permits people to relate to others based on assumed opinions and actions. Race and gender are two primary dimensions of categorization, with race or ethnicity being a particularly salient category. However, over-generalization of social categories can lead the categorizer to think, judge, and treat themselves and members of a perceived group similarly, leading to prejudice and stereotyping. Social categorization also occurs in educational settings across the globe. The consequences of categorization may influence a student's feelings of belonging and academic success.
Our analysis reflects on how to promote equitable opportunities for ethnic minority medical trainees through the lens of those who have experienced and succeeded in an inequitable system. By revisiting the social and psychological constructs that determine and influence the academic progress and success of minority students in medical education, we discovered that more engagement is (still) needed for critical discourse on this topic. We expect such conversations to help generate new insights to improve inclusion and equity in our educational systems.
受作者的个人经历的启发——一位是职业生涯初期、女性、黑人；另一位是职业生涯后期、男性、黑人——我们对少数族裔医学生在医学教育中的困境进行了批判性的、社会学的概述。我们分析了医学教育中分类、他者化和归属感的概念，这些概念揭示了将社会类别过度概括对少数族裔学生的心理和学业的后果。
将人们分类到不同社会群体的能力是一种自然的、潜意识的现象。人们认为创建社会群体有助于他们在这个世界上生存。这使得人们能够根据假设的意见和行为与他人建立联系。种族和性别是分类的两个主要维度，种族或民族是一个特别突出的类别。然而，对社会类别的过度概括会导致分类者以类似的方式思考、判断和对待自己和被认为属于某个群体的成员，从而导致偏见和刻板印象。社会分类也发生在全球的教育环境中。分类的后果可能会影响学生的归属感和学业成功。
我们的分析反映了那些在不平等制度中经历过并取得成功的人，如何从他们的角度出发，为少数族裔医学受训者提供公平的机会。通过重新审视决定和影响少数族裔医学生在医学教育中的学业进步和成功的社会和心理结构，我们发现，我们仍然需要更多的关注来讨论这个话题。我们希望这些对话能帮助产生新的见解，以改善我们教育系统中的包容性和公平性。
