Teaching About Social Practices and Structures in Continuing Professional Development: A Multiple Case Study in Quality Improvement and Interprofessional Collaboration.
Jul 2026· Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions· 0 citations· 45 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This study examined the teaching of social practices and structures in the domains of interprofessional collaboration and quality improvement, and the education paradigms used, with particular attention to transformative education.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Continuing professional development (CPD) about social processes and structures (eg, power relations, organizational policies) in health care has been minimally explored. This study examined the teaching of social practices and structures in the domains of interprofessional collaboration and quality improvement, and the education paradigms used, with particular attention to transformative education.
Methods
This case study included three CPD cases at two university-affiliated Centres. Data collection included observations (n = 42.5 hours), interviews with program/Centre leads and guest presenters (n = 13), and documents. Paradigms of education informed the interpretive thematic analysis conducted.
Results
A range of concepts related to social practices and structures were introduced across sessions (eg, systemic racism, unconscious bias). An examination of education purpose, role of teacher-learner, and teaching modalities, demonstrated that varied paradigms of education (eg, cognitivist, constructivist) were drawn on to teach these topics, with efforts toward transformative approaches. Programs were largely oriented to practical learning and application, with the teacher positioned as expert or learners being encouraged to interact with, and learn from each other. However, participants recognized additional education purposes aligned with a transformative paradigm, to question and shift learners' perspectives, making efforts to align teacher-learner roles and learning modalities. There were tensions, though, working across paradigms; session formats and learner/sponsor expectations influenced paradigms used.
Discussion
Findings provide insights to how to incorporate content about social practices and structures into interprofessional collaboration and quality improvement CPD. Given the multiple and sometimes competing education goals, positioning paradigms of education as coexisting layers may be more effective than viewing them as mutually exclusive.
This article focuses on how higher education, in four degree programmes, engages in collaboration: teacher education, special educational needs counselling, social work, and health-care counselling, within a context where current welfare and education assume interprofessional collaboration. The aim is to analyse how collaboration is conceptualised, enacted, and becomes embedded in the programmes, and how interprofessional learning (IPL) is oriented in relation to higher education’s role in sustaining a democratic and sustainable society. The empirical material consists of semi-structured interviews with program coordinators. The ‘communities of practice’ (CoP) and democracy perspectives conceptualise collaboration and IPL as social practices and democratic processes. The analysis shows that collaboration in higher education is divergently conceptualised, indicating the absence of a shared conceptual basis, enacted in different ways, and serves distinct professional functions. The opportunities for IPL vary considerably: some programmes integrate structured collaborative activities, while others rely on traditional teaching or postpone collaboration until professional practice. The embedding of collaboration in programmes signals democratic potential, yet requires alignment with programme visions, professional identities, and institutional structures that enable communication, autonomy, and shared responsibility for a sustainable democratic welfare society.
Charlotta Pettersson, Matilda Fredriksson· Journal of Praxis in Higher...· 1 citation
The emergent 4P Framework is presented, which identifies four core considerations for effective IPE integration: Priority, Professional value, Professional commitment, and Person-centredness.
Susanne Lindqvist, F. Vasset, Synnøve Hofseth Almås et al.· Journal of Interprofessional...· 0 citations
INTRODUCTION
Acceptance of teachers' need for pedagogical training to maintain quality in health professions education has grown. However, to enhance interest in becoming a professional teacher, a better understanding of experiences related to initial contact with teaching is needed. The framework of landscape of practice (LoP) offers a perspective highlighting identification processes as academics and clinicians participate in and navigate across familiar and new communities. The aim of this study was to explore how boundary crossing into teaching practices is expressed in educators' narrative constructions of critical incidents from teaching situations at a medical university.
METHODS
Teachers' written critical incident analyses (CIA) of teaching situations (N = 69), submitted during two iterations of a faculty development course at a medical university, were collected. The assignments were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS
One overarching theme, Teaching appears as an individual venture, and four subthemes, Internalised self-blame and external attribution of responsibility; Encountering teaching situations marked by limited control and psychological safety; Relational dynamics and communicative challenges; Pedagogical commitment and professional agency, were identified. The findings mirrored strong reactions, abandonment and isolation, but also engagement and responsibility for high-quality education.
DISCUSSION
The findings show that engaging in educational practice, developing a professional identity as a teacher is a complex, often isolated endeavour, sometimes disconnected from primary professional practice. Relating these findings to identification processes described within the framework of LoP, demonstrates a need to support individual processes as well as the connections and collaboration between different communities in a LoP. To address this, three interrelated actions are needed: support from the teachers' primary communities of practice and the wider landscapes of practice; strengthening structural and cultural conditions that recognise education as a scholarly activity and an integral part of the university's LoP; and increased educational awareness and competence at management level.
Anna Bonnevier, A. Rundlöf, Per J. Palmgren et al.· Medical Teacher· 0 citations
Background: Existing studies on disability inclusion in higher education have primarily focused on learning support, disability services, and educational accessibility, and limited attention has been given to public relations (PR) as a strategic function in inclusive institutional communication. Furthermore, Excellence Theory, the Preparation–Implementation–Impact (PII) Model, and Inclusive Communication have rarely been integrated into evaluate inclusive PR practices. Purpose: This study explores and evaluates inclusive PR practices for students with disabilities in Indonesian higher education and develops an integrated conceptual model. Methods: Guided by a constructivist paradigm, this qualitative multiple-case study involved eight purposely selected informants from a state university (Universitas Negeri Jakarta) and a private university (LSPR Institute of Communication and Business). Both universities were selected because they provide services for students with disabilities while representing different institutional contexts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis and analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, supported by NVivo. The PII Model served as the evaluative framework, while Excellence Theory and Inclusive Communication guided data interpretation. Results: Inclusive PR practices are shaped through interactions among PR strategic role, communication implementation, institutional support, students’ communication experiences, and continuous evaluation. Although both universities adopted more participatory and accessible communication, accessibility cannot be determined solely by communication channels or disability support services because barriers differ across disability types. Communication evaluation also remained largely informal, limiting the systematic use of students’ experiences in future planning. Conclusion: This study proposes the Ecosystem-Based Inclusive PR Practices Conceptual Model, which reconceptualizes inclusive public relations as a collaborative, adaptive, and experience-driven communication ecosystem. Implications: The proposed model extends Excellence Theory, the PII Model, and Inclusive Communication by positioning evaluation as a continuous organizational learning mechanism and provides practical guidance for strengthening sustainable inclusive communication in higher education.
Arwinda Audiary Silitonga, S. Zahro, Janette Maria Pinariya· PRofesi Humas· 0 citations
This study examines how school-level conditions shape the translation of professional development into everyday practice within Tanzania’s TCPD in response to the Education and Training Policy (ETP) 2014 revised version of 2023 reform. It begins from the evidence that policy frameworks and professional development activities do not actively influence teaching directly rather it depends on the organisational, relational, and motivational life of schools. Using a quantitative secondary analysis of an uploaded survey workbook containing 725 respondents from six regions namely: Iringa, Njombe, Geita, Singida, Rukwa, and Mtwara, the study analysed participation patterns, understanding of head teacher practices, and multiple motivation profiles to explore how professional learning is enacted at school level. The descriptive findings indicate that weekly engagement in professional development activities is widespread, Communities of Learning (CoL) are the dominant participation modality, and that teachers generally report positive strategic leadership conditions and strong accountability routines and autonomous motivation. Regression results further reveal that school-level implementation factors such as strategic leadership, developmental support, accountability management, and the absence of passive leadership are closely related to motivation outcomes. This paper argues that these relationships should be interpreted as evidence of implementation mediation, schools interpret policy and programme inputs into everyday professional experience. The study contributes to the literature on continuous professional development by showing that the effectiveness of school-based professional development depends not only on programme design but also on the capacity of schools to adapt, support, and routinize professional learning.
Beatus B. Mapunda· International Journal of Edu...· 0 citations
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are integrated into a nursing education program at the Universidad Técnica del Norte (UTN), Ecuador and to identify the institutional, curricular and pedagogical factors associated with their explicit incorporation. The study aims to clarify the gap between SDGs awareness and formal curricular enactment in higher education for the health sciences.
The study adopts a sequential mixed-methods design combining qualitative, quantitative and documentary approaches. Data were collected through a faculty focus group, surveys administered to instructors (n = 35) and undergraduate nursing students (n = 498) and a microcurricular review of official course syllabi (n = 45) within the UTN nursing program. Quantitative analyses included nonparametric tests, correlation analyses, clustering techniques and logistic regression, while qualitative and documentary data were integrated through methodological triangulation.
Although faculty awareness of the SDGs is relatively high, their translation into explicit curricular practice remains uneven, with fewer than two thirds of instructors reporting formal integration. Faculty engagement is concentrated primarily on SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDGs 4 (Quality Education), reflecting disciplinary proximity, while broader socio-ecological goals receive limited attention. Logistic regression analysis showed moderate explanatory capacity (McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.429), indicating that structural and curricular factors play a stronger role in explicit SDGs integration than pedagogical activity alone. Among students, exposure to the SDGs is widespread, but levels of deep understanding are modest, and knowledge is only weakly associated with perceived importance. The micro-curricular analysis reveals that explicit SDGs references are largely absent from foundational courses and become more prevalent in professionalizing and practice-based stages, particularly during the Rota.
The study is limited by its single-institution design and the small faculty sample size, which may restrict statistical power and generalizability. Future research should adopt multi-institutional and longitudinal designs and incorporate direct measures of sustainability competence development.
The findings provide actionable guidance for curriculum governance and faculty development in nursing education. They support the need to institutionalize SDGs integration from early curricular stages, align active pedagogies with explicit learning outcomes and assessment criteria and strengthen program-level mechanisms to ensure coherent and traceable Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
By strengthening the integration of the SDGs in nursing education, higher education institutions can better prepare future nurses to address health inequities, promote preventive and community-based care and contribute to sustainable health systems. Such integration also enhances graduate employability by developing competencies increasingly valued in the global health sector, including sustainability awareness, equity-oriented practice, community engagement and responsible use of health resources. In the Ecuadorian context, and more broadly in the Global South, such curricular alignment has the potential to enhance social justice, public health outcomes and community well-being through professionally trained agents of sustainable development.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides one of the first empirical, multilevel analyses of SDGs integration in nursing education in Ecuador. By combining faculty and student perspectives with micro-curricular evidence from UTN, it offers an evidence-informed framework for strengthening ESD in health sciences programs, particularly in Global South contexts.
Katty Elizabeth Cabascango Cabascango, Patricia Marlene Aguirre Mejía, Freddy Hernán Villota González et al.· International Journal of Sus...· 0 citations
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