189 Summary 7 phenotype attributed the development of their educational identity primarily to intrapersonal aspects: a willingness to evolve, being reflective, and developing relevant character traits. The educators who matured towards the Inspirer phenotype attributed the development of their educational mission to both intrapersonal aspects and meaningful experiences. Consistent with the core characteristic of a mission, which is that it is focused on others, these educators reported having become more aware of the importance of giving the patient or student a voice. On a larger scale, they had become more aware of adverse developments in the medical profession and society, and aimed to contribute to solving these in their role as teachers. All educators who showed maturation indicated that this development was motivated by their task, identity, and mission as a physician, and attributed it to engaging in primarily informal learning opportunities. We conclude that maturation of medical educators can occur, but is not guaranteed. Our findings suggest that the Critic phenotype may not be a permanent phenotype, nor a ‘starter’ phenotype, but that dissatisfaction with adverse professional or private circumstances may temporarily distort these educators’ perspectives on being a teacher. Maturation is thus influenced by the context, and appears to progress via developmental stages, with increasing awareness of successively educational competencies, identity, and mission. Thus, to promote the maturation of educators, medical educators should be supported in their teaching tasks by their departments and institutions. In addition, faculty development initiatives need to be varied and differentiated, preferably extending over a long period of time and embedded in the everyday work setting. Finally, an important recommendation of this study is to include educators’ patient-care roles in faculty development initiatives and involve practising physicians as faculty developers. In the general discussion (Chapter 6) we discuss the main findings of the research, conjoin them and relate them to current literature. Exploration of educators’ maturation led to the two main lines of our research: the beliefs of medical educators about the process of teaching and learning, and their perspectives on being a teacher. After discussing these two lines of research, we elaborate on two themes that emerged from our research findings as particularly relevant: the role of the environment, and the role of mission. This culminates in a discussion on the maturation of educators. Finally, we conclude this chapter by describing the strengths and limitations of our research project, suggestions for future research, and specific recommendations for practice.
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