106 Chapter 4 Korthagen12,13 developed and validated a theoretical model in the teacher education context which relates beliefs not only to behaviours and competencies, but also to a teacher’s educational identity and mission. Korthagen described ‘identity’ as how teachers define themselves and how they see their professional role. While the focus is on the ‘self,’ the concept is largely determined by how relationships with significant others are viewed. ‘Mission’ is defined as the source of inspiration, reflecting a teacher’s deepest purposes and ideals. A mission gives meaning to one’s professional existence by contributing to others (e.g. students or colleagues) within a larger context and therefore has a transpersonal characteristic. The question of who I am as a teacher is related to a teacher’s identity, whereas the question of why I teach is related to a teacher’s mission. While the literature provides substantial evidence for the relationship between educators’ beliefs and behaviours,3,14,15 little is known about the relationship between beliefs and identity. Only a few studies show a potential link between educators’ beliefs and their educational identities.16,17 However, these studies did not explore aspects of teaching-centred or learning-centred beliefs, which are specifically relevant in learning-centred education. The notion of ‘educational mission’ has also not received much attention in the medical education literature, and even less is known about the relationship between a medical educator’s educational mission and their beliefs about teaching and learning. Although recent studies have paid attention to educators’ motivation to teach, in particular within the ‘professional identity’ literature,18-20 the concept of motivation is not identical to Korthagen’s concept of mission. Whereas motivation can refer to temporary, short-term goals, ‘educational mission’ refers to what ‘deeply drives and gives meaning’ to an educator’s professional existence. Even though Korthagen defines this concept as a core teacher quality, underlying a teacher’s identity, it has been infrequently studied. Indeed, we know of only two studies in the health professions exploring educators’ missions. Steinert & Macdonald21 focused on what teaching means for educators working in a clinical context. They described physicians’ educational mission as ‘being morally and socially motivated to teach, wanting to contribute to the next generation of physicians, which gave them a sense of personal fulfilment.’ Ottenhoff-de Jonge et al.22 examined medical educators’ perspectives about being a good teacher in a preclinical context, using Korthagen’s model as a theoretical framework. They concluded that educators with the most elaborate perspective on being a good teacher were not only aware of their educational identity, but of their educational mission as well.
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