20 Chapter 1 the other to students’ professional development; the latter which we consider particularly important in the context of medical education and which has received much attention in recent medical education literature.e.g.59-61 The framework of Samuelowicz & Bain16 was developed in contexts outside of medical education. Therefore, we aimed to adapt and validate this framework here in the medical education context. Perspectives on being a teacher Since there is evidence that a substantial number of educators in medical schools with learning-centred curricula still hold teaching-centred beliefs,e.g.25,26 we aimed to better understand which factors influence medical educators’ beliefs about teaching and learning. A better understanding of these factors may provide clues as to how educators can be supported to develop learning-centred beliefs. One of the potential starting points in the search for influencing factors is to examine the educators’ perspectives on being a teacher. The rationale for this premise is given by two studies from different educational contexts, i.e. higher education27 and teacher education,28 both of which relate beliefs about teaching and learning to perspectives on being a teacher. Åkerlind27 explored perspectives on being a university teacher and concludes that ‘a focus on academics’ experience of teaching separated from their larger experience of being a teacher may encourage oversimplification of the phenomenon of university teaching, in particular in terms of academics’ underlying intentions when teaching. There is more to the experience of being a teacher than simply teaching.’ Within the field of teacher education, Korthagen28,62 developed a theoretical model which relates and integrates different perspectives on being a teacher, including a teacher’s beliefs about teaching and learning. To explore what ‘being a teacher’ means for medical educators in relation to their beliefs about teaching and learning, we decided to take Korthagen’s model (see Figure 1.2) as a starting point for the following reasons. First, the model has a holistic perspective on what it means to be a teacher, and also takes the educational context into account. Second, the model includes a teacher’s identity, a concept that has received increasing attention recently within the medical education literature.e.g.63-65 Third, it includes a teacher’s mission, defined as a teacher’s source of inspiration and motivation. The concept of the ‘underlying intentions’ of a teacher27 seems to be included in this ‘mission’ concept. By using Korthagen’s model as a lens, we aimed to explore the variety of medical educators’ perspectives on being a teacher.
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