Mary H. Maguire

Seeking inclusion in an exclusive process: discourses of medical school student selection

Calls to increase medical class representativeness to better reflect the diversity of society represent a growing international trend. There is an inherent tension between these calls and competitive student selection processes driven by academic achievement. How is this tension manifested?

Coping with On-the-Job Writing in ESL: A Constructivist- Semiotic Perspective.

Despite a long-standing interest within applied linguistics in the analysis of written genres, few studies have attempted to show how such genres are appropriated by new members in academic or workplace settings. Based on a 22-month qualitative study, this article reports on how francophone nurses, who were newly hired in an English-medium hospital in Montreal, Canada, developed skill in writing nursing notes (which differed from the way they were done in French) in English. Central to the analysis is the construct of mediation, explored in terms of how collaborative processes, both overt and covert, shape text production as well as other less visible, taken-for-granted aspects of the social context.

The more it changes; the more it remains the same: a foucauldian analysis of Canadian policy documents relevant to student selection for medical school

Calls to increase the demographic representativeness of medical classes to better reflect the diversity of society are part of a growing international trend. Despite this, entry into medical school remains highly competitive and exclusive of marginalized groups. To address these questions, we conducted a Foucauldian discourse analysis of 15 publically available policy documents from the websites of Canadian medical education regulatory bodies, using the concepts of “excellence” (institutional or in an applicant), “diversity,” and “equity” to frame the analysis. In most documents, there were appeals to broaden definitions of institutional excellence to include concerns for greater social accountability. Equity concerns tended to be represented as needing to be dealt with by people in positions of authority in order to counter a “hidden curriculum.” Diversity was represented as an object of value, situated within a discontinuous history. As a rhetorical strategy, documents invoked complex societal shifts to promote change toward a more humanistic medical education system and profession. “Social accountability” was reified as an all-encompassing solution to most issues of representation. Although the policy documents proclaimed rootedness in an ethos of improving the societal responsiveness of the medical profession, our analysis takes a more critical stance towards the discourses identified. On the basis of our research findings, we question whether these calls may contribute to the maintenance of the specific power relations they seek to address. These conclusions lead us to consider the possibility that the discourses represented in the documents might be reframed to take into account issues of power distribution and its productive and reproductive features. A reframing of discourses could potentially generate greater inclusiveness in policy development processes, and afford disadvantaged and marginalized groups more participatory roles in the discussion.

What might we be saying to potential applicants to medical school? Discourses of excellence, equity, and diversity on the web sites of Canada's 17 medical schools.

Purpose Medical school Web sites often advance arguments to claim institutional excellence and appeal to the “best and the brightest” who might join their institutions as medical students. What do these texts communicate about institutional excellence, or the excellence of potential applicants to medical school? How are discourses related to social accountability, such as those concerning diversity and equity, represented? Method From July through December 2010, using the concepts of excellence, equity, and diversity, the authors examined the discourses identified on the Web sites of Canada’s 17 medical schools, focusing on faculty welcome pages, deans’ messages, and those pages specifically targeting applicants to medicine. Results Institutional prestige and applicant suitability were generally promoted through discourses of academic excellence such as research, innovation, and global positioning. Service-to-society discourses were much less prominent. Diversity discourses emerged primarily as appeals to institutions’ cosmopolitan sophistication. Equity, when mentioned, tended to focus on increasing the participation of indigenous and rural students in medicine. Institutional positioning can be situated on a continuum from the more “centric” (typical academic excellence claims) to the more “eccentric” (excellence claims grounded in local contexts such as service to a region or constituency). Conclusions Discourses can play a central role in regulating social institutional practices. It is worthwhile for medical schools to examine the messages that medical schools are communicating on their Web sites. If schools are to move beyond prestige-based characterizations of excellence and build a socially accountable profession, open and inclusive discussions are needed.