94 Chapter 3 development programmes and the teacher-educator responsible for this programme. Other research has emphasised the importance of the teacher-educator’s role in the educational development of academics.53 At SUSM a faculty member provided teach-the-teacher seminars which emphasised the ability of an academic to inspire students to high achievement. A majority of the SUSM academics referred to his programme during their interview. No reference to any teacher-educator was made by LUMC academics. We presume that the relationship between academics and their students shows a parallel with the relationship between the teacher-educator and the academics in his teach-the-teacher seminars. In line with the findings of our study that academics within the ‘Inspirer’ profile have a drive to contribute to the learning of the students, the teacher-educator’s mission would be to contribute to the learning of the academics in his programme by helping them reflect on their teaching. The inspiration which he conveys may influence the articulated educational mission of the SUSM teachers. Two other findings merit some comment. The first is that within the ‘Inspirer’ profile the convictions theme is absent. We presume that academics with more elaborate beliefs about teacher qualities are less likely to articulate these beliefs in general statements, but express their beliefs more explicitly. As the convictions theme is a theme per exclusionem, their articulated beliefs could be categorised in one of the other five themes. The second is that even though we did not explicitly explore the relationship between academics’ beliefs about teacher qualities and their teaching beliefs orientation, in one of the profiles, the ‘Critic’ profile, the majority of academics expressed a teacher-centred teaching beliefs orientation. These academics mainly see themselves as responsible for the transfer of subject matter knowledge to their students, even though this is incongruent with the student-centred orientation of their medical school. Another study27 also concluded that not all academics teaching in a student-centred curriculum embrace a student-centred teaching belief. Our findings raise the question whether there is a relationship between an individual academic’s teacher profile and the academic’s beliefs about teaching. Such a relationship is not unlikely, as in our findings the least inclusive profile, the ‘Critic’ profile, corresponds to a teacher-centred beliefs orientation, which is widely regarded as less developed than a student-centred orientation.8,12 Limitations and implications for future research This study was executed within the context of two medical schools. This may limit the immediate transferability of our findings to other medical schools. Secondly, almost ten years have passed between the data collection and the
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