130 Chapter 5 it also promotes the development of other essential qualities, including an educator’s educational identity5,6 and ‘mission.’ The concept of mission refers to the source of personal inspiration that underlies an educator’s identity.7 However, we still know little about how the development of these qualities can be effectively supported, since there is a paucity of data on the maturation processes of medical faculty.5 Gaining more insight into the maturation processes of medical educators over time may help to advance the field of FD for the benefit of the education of future physicians, consistent with learning-centred educational principles. One recent study related awareness of educational identity and mission to teaching beliefs that align with the educational principles of learning-centred education,8 which can lead to a change in teaching behaviours.9 Development of medical educators’ awareness of their educational identity has been explored by a limited number of studies, primarily in the context of longitudinal FD interventions.10,11 A few studies have explored the development of medical educators’ awareness of their educational identity outside of formal faculty development interventions, focusing on informal learning opportunities in authentic settings which are suggested to be at least as important in FD.1 Browne et al.12 and Cantillon et al.13 ascertained development of an educational identity awareness in retrospect, as self-identified or self-perceived by their studies’ participants. Van Lankveld et al.14 explored this development in beginning pre-clinical educators through a followup study, thus reducing the risk of recall bias. However, in Van Lankveld’s study, the vast majority of educators were not involved in patient care. While not all university educators in pre-clinical medical education are involved in patient care, the vast majority are. Moreover, a recent review4 concluded that educators who are involved in patient care ‘reconcile’ their educational identities with their identities as patient-care providers, thus implying a reciprocal influence of both identities. With regard to the development of a personal educational mission awareness, the literature is even more limited: we know of no such research within the medical education context. Therefore, this study aims to fill the gap in understanding how educators who have a patient-care role develop an awareness of their educational identity as well as a sense of educational mission over time. To inform the conceptualisation of this study we have utilised a model which presents four educator ‘phenotypes,’ categories based on the extent to which medical educators are aware of their educational qualities and the workplace
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