Elizabeth Armitage-Chan

A well-developed professional identity is an essential component of professional well-being and sustainable practice. Emerging research demonstrates that identity formation and dissonance are perceived, constructed, and managed differently in different global contexts, and yet veterinary curricula intended to support professional identity formation (PIF) and assist students encountering identity dissonance often remain rooted in research from white, Western cultures. This project aims to explore veterinary students’ PIF in Namibia, a highly multicultural and multilingual context, and to identify meaningful experiences contributing to PIF in this region, including the ways that dissonance contributes to this process. Narrative inquiry was utilized to capture relevant experiences of all final-year veterinary students in one cohort at the sole veterinary school in Namibia. Prior experiences of poor animal welfare, cultural influences that foster a desire to “give back,” and instances of academic challenge that reinforced motivation and a sense of purpose (being proud to join the veterinary profession) all contributed to PIF. Dissonance was not found in situations of differing client values; indeed, these evoked empathy and a desire to help. Instead, dissonance arose from perceived academic underperformance and criticism from clinician-educators. Coping mechanisms included well-developed empathy and reflective skills and support from family. These findings widen the conceptualization of meaningful PIF experiences and prompt educators to acknowledge that identity and dissonance observations may not be globally and cultural transferable. This has implications for curriculum design and scaffolding of PIF for educators of diverse and international student cohorts.

Reflective assignments represent an important component in the suite of health professionals’ assessments, supporting professional identity formation, workplace learning, uncertainty tolerance and critical knowledge application. However, assessment is complex. Marking and feedback can be highly time-consuming, cognitive and emotional. Associated emotions (anxiety, stress, frustration), if unregulated, can detract from working memory, reducing cognitive capacity and compromising performance, with implications for marking quality. Different epistemological conceptions of criticality in reflection further compound quality of marking. Collaborative conversation was used to explore the experiences of seven experienced educators and their perspectives on marking reflective writing. This feminist research methodology is employed to improve practice through socially co-constructed understanding of that practice, achieved by analysing experiences, emotions and relationships. The purpose of the research was focused on improving examiners’ experience, with the anticipation that this would improve their practice and enhance the quality of the assessment, for example improving reliability or feedback. Amongst the participants, marking reflection incited anxieties about personal workload, as well as students’ emotional responses to grades and marks being ‘wrong’ or judged poorly by moderators; they responded by reading each essay multiple times and repeatedly revising feedback. All participants described a contrasting experience in a course in which collaborative paired marking was introduced. Marking and feedback were then viewed as both a shared task and as professional self-development, framing marking as a learning activity. Within examiner pairs, sharing interpretations of criticality in reflection and collaborating on feedback and grading widened individual examiners’ interpretations of high-quality work, resulted in perceptions of fairer marking, reduced emotional load, and reduced perceived workload by removing the multiple rechecking of marks and feedback. A collaborative, open approach is therefore advocated to improve the practice of assessing reflective work, including perceptions of improved grading reliability and quality of feedback.

Professional work often requires individuals to operate outside their comfort zone (professional stretch), and this can facilitate learning and growth. Self-doubt is common when experiencing professional stretch. For some individuals in some contexts, self-doubt can be so profound that learning stops. Imposter syndrome (IS) is paradoxical self-doubt; individuals believe themselves poorly capable of competencies in which they excel. Affected individuals feel they must work exceptionally hard to succeed. IS has been observed in clinicians, students, and educators, which has important implications for supporting student development. This study sought to understand the relationship between academic/professional stretch and intense self-doubt in a population of veterinary educators, with the aim of better supporting learning in stretching workplace environments. Interviews were undertaken with seven female veterinary educators undertaking an MSc in Veterinary Education. Data were processed and experiential themes were derived using an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach. Participants described extreme academic discomfort, linked to poor self-efficacy, exacerbated by feedback that was perceived to be unexpectedly negative. Distance followed by dialogue enabled some participants to process difficult emotions so that learning could continue. Participants recognized IS in others. Their own imposter-like thinking was less well recognized, being experienced in tandem with self-doubt rooted in real rather than imagined competence gaps. On the basis of this research, close mentoring relationships are advocated, so that through facilitated reflective dialogue, feelings of intense self-doubt can be better understood and supported, facilitating learning. Students can benefit from teachers’ experiences of academic stretch, and this should be investigated further.

Professional identity is a construct that has been defined across identity discourses, and is, at times, seen as one’s individual professional brand, or one’s representation as a member of the organisational group. As a psychosocial construct, one’s professional identity can be seen as the confluence of the personal and the professional: the elements of an individual’s personal values, goals and beliefs that they bring to their professional role. When seen through this lens, professional identity has important implications for an individual’s satisfaction with the decisions and actions they take when at work, and thus, for their professional well-being. This section will explore the different ways that professionals form their professional identity, focusing on the veterinary context and what is known from this field about the formation of professional identity and its consequences. Because of the research that is available, the veterinarian’s professional identity has been chosen as the exemplar, however the potential application to all veterinary colleagues, including veterinary nursing, will be presented.

Achievement goal orientation (AGO) defines student motivation and whether they are driven by learning and competence (mastery orientation) or performance markers, such as grades (performance orientation). Competency-based veterinary education aligns with a mastery orientation, particularly when students are assessed on the basis of achieving competence, rather than using grades. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to report the AGO of veterinary students and evaluate their responses to educational challenges, describe how they maintain motivation, and explore their perceptions of grades using AGO as a theoretical framework. Most students are more strongly mastery oriented but also typically have moderate to strong performance goal orientation. Focus group analysis shows evidence of both orientations in students’ behaviors, regardless of their predominant orientation, and these behaviors are, at times, conflicting. Curricular overload is viewed as a significant educational challenge, exacerbating performance avoidance behaviors (e.g., procrastination). Students profess to enjoy educational challenge but are adept at constructing narratives around why some challenges are not considered fair or legitimate, which may suggest false mastery mind-set. They also tend to state preferences for pass/fail grading but have complex feelings about grades, and some desire objective feedback on performance relative to peers. In the absence of objective feedback, students leverage a variety of methods (both mastery- and performance-oriented) to maintain motivation and achieve comparisons with peers. Withdrawal of objective measures such as grades, grade point average, and class rank would need to be carefully coupled with sufficient feedback and support for students who may rely on these as motivators.

Veterinary students frequently experience heightened emotions, which can stimulate or compromise learning. The impact of student emotions on educators, or the ways that educators can respond to these, is less well known. This has potential impacts for educators’ own emotional responses and for educators’ effectiveness in supporting learning. To better support educators in facilitating student learning, this study sought to further understand how students’ epistemic emotions are experienced by educators. We explored the experiences of educators from three international veterinary schools, using iterative interpretive analysis of workshop discussions designed and implemented for the purpose of the study. Analysis revealed that veterinary educators experience a range of emotions in the course of teaching their students, arising from events, such as emotional topics or clinical situations; receipt of grades; and the experience of uncertainty, for example, in teaching methods or open-ended tasks. The educators’ responses to these included feeling overwhelmed and anxious—wanting to help facilitate student learning but lacking the tools to do so. Consequently, educators felt unable to engage effectively with students, and learning was deactivated. This could occur even when students were interested and curious. Educators’ responses were particularly challenged by time and assessment pressures (needing to remain on topic and teach to learning outcomes). Strategies for responding to student emotions and to support development of educator emotional intelligence have been generated. These include a need for institutional recognition of the time resources necessary for educators to reflectively learn from complex situations experienced in their classrooms.

Remote learning provides flexible opportunities for veterinarians and veterinary technicians to undertake professional development qualifications alongside their work. Although this offers advantages in accessing courses that may otherwise not be available, online provision may not suit all learners equally. Using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with a group of veterinary educators (faculty, veterinarians, and veterinary nurses/technicians), this study explored their engagement and learning outcome achievements from a post-graduate certificate in veterinary education. Participants were highly motivated to engage, but their engagement was compromised when they had low levels of professional autonomy (particularly in scheduling study time and opportunities to put learning outcomes into practice). Some participants also found engagement more challenging when they experienced academic uncertainty or a reduction in social learning opportunities. A lot of the learning occurred in the participants applying taught content to practice, and therefore the education interface extended to the workplace. Educators teaching similar students using an online-only format should thus recognize the learners’ workplaces as an important part of the learning environment and find ways to help them learn in that context. Learner engagement is also supported by interventions to foster social connections, scaffolded strategies for self-direction, and helping them to balance achievement against well-being goals.

Curriculum leaders, individuals with responsibility for an institution's veterinary curriculum, are student-oriented, want to make a difference, and prioritize teaching and pedagogy in their work. However, as they work to enhance curriculum development, they experience tensions in their role. This study built on previous quantitative findings, and aimed to explore further how curriculum leaders respond to tensions, and how their identity is constructed and supported in a way that means they can thrive in their role. Using self-determination theory and narrative identity as conceptual frameworks, nine curriculum leaders were interviewed about their experiences. Narrative inquiry methodology enabled in-depth interpretations to be drawn about identity influences and participants’ responses to conflict and dissonance. Curriculum leader identity was defined as being student-centered, change-oriented, valuing both clinical (particularly general practice), and pedagogical expertise while engaging in hard work and service to achieve pedagogical goals. Participants were skilled in leading change and had developed skills and personal attributes for this. Leading change involved experiences of conflict and tension that were personally meaningful, evoking feelings of identity dissonance that were characterised by either emotional resilience or disaffection and frustration. This response depended on social identity influences, including opportunities to network with like-minded peers, recognition of achievements from influential others, institutional advocacy for change, and support for advanced pedagogical training.

Curriculum leaders (individuals with responsibility for an institution’s veterinary curriculum) play a vital role in driving local curriculum priorities, development, and accreditation. This study aimed to describe the career paths of curriculum leaders and identify what motivates them, the barriers they face, and the knowledge, skills, and attributes they perceive as essential for the role. Self-determination theory was used to identify tensions experienced within the role. An international online survey targeted at those identifying as curriculum leaders was completed by 45 participants. 91% of participants held a doctoral level qualification and/or clinical Boards; 82% had additional training in leadership; 38% had additional formal training in education. Motivators included a desire to make a difference, personal satisfaction with teaching and working with students, and social influences. Participants experienced barriers relating to self-development and achievement of their curriculum goals; participants described essential knowledge (of the profession, educational theory, and wider higher education context) and skills (leading teams, change management, and communication). Attributes considered important related both to self (open-minded, patient, resilient, able to see the big picture as well as detail) and relationships with others (approachable, listener, respectful and respected, supportive, credible). Tensions arose in participants’ need for autonomy (experiencing barriers to achieving their goals), in their social relatedness (achieving curriculum goals while working with colleagues with conflicting priorities), and in perceptions of necessary competence (a need, but lack of opportunity, for advanced training in educational theory). The findings may help institutions more effectively support and train current and future curriculum leaders.