Journal article
Critical orientations for humanising health sciences education in South Africa
- Abstract:
- In this article, the authors make a case for the ’humanisation' and ’decolonisation' of health sciences curricula in South Africa, using integration as a guiding framework. Integration refers to an education that is built on a consolidated conceptual framework that includes and equally values the natural or biomedical sciences as well as the humanities, arts and social sciences, respecting that all of this knowledge has value for the practice of healthcare. An integrated curriculum goes beyond add-on or elective courses in the humanities and social sciences. It is a curriculum that includes previously marginalised sources of knowledge (challenging knowledge hierarchies and decolonising curricula); addresses an appropriate intellectual self-image in health sciences education (challenging the image of the health professional); promotes understanding of history and social context, centring issues of inclusion, access and social justice (cultivating a social ethic) and finally, focuses on care and relatedness as an essential aspect of clinical work (embedding relatedness in practice). The article offers a brief historical overview of challenges in health and health sciences education in South Africa since 1994, followed by a discussion of contemporary developments in critical health sciences pedagogies and the medical and health humanities in South Africa. It then draws on examples from South Africa to outline how these four critical orientations or competencies might be applied in practice, to educate health professionals that can meet the challenges of health and healthcare in contemporary South Africa.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 272.0KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/medhum-2018-011472
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- Medical Humanities More from this journal
- Volume:
- 44
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 221-229
- Publication date:
- 2018-11-27
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-07-24
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1473-4265
- ISSN:
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1468-215X
- Language:
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English
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:966611
- UUID:
-
uuid:c794d10a-608f-4311-8f03-1b98e98783a0
- Local pid:
-
pubs:966611
- Source identifiers:
-
966611
- Deposit date:
-
2019-01-28
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Pentecost et al
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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