Browsing by Author "Madzimbamuto, Farai Daniel"
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- ItemHow do non-attenders of faculty development offerings perceive their development as educators?(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Madzimbamuto, Farai Daniel; Blitz, Julia; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Centre for Health Professions Education.ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background: Faculty Development, as a means of addressing the educational needs of health professionals entering undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, has been undergoing continuous change of definition and expanding its scope of activities. The research literature has tended to focus on those that participate or attend faculty development activities. The Department of Health Professions Education at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences has been offering faculty development activities for seven years. There are members of faculty who have not attended all or most of these. From the literature, those who attend in other countries, describe the same constraints to participation as non-attenders, and yet still manage to attend. In higher education, faculty are recruited for their content expertise and have to develop pedagogic expertise, and faculty development activities assist in this process. The aim of this study is to explore how faculty who do not attend perceive their development and identity as educators. Methodology: This was a phenomenological study attempting to present, record, understand and be interpretive of the experience of faculty developing into teachers and educators. Non-attenders were defined as those who, in the last five years, have attended one or less faculty development offerings of the Department of Health Professions Education. Attendance registers were used to identify participants and purposive sampling was used to achieve a sample balanced for clinical and non-clinical roles, full and part-time, gender and years since appointment to the university. An interview schedule was used, with all the interviews recorded, transcribed, and member-checked before analysis commenced. Transcendental phenomenological analysis was used. Each subject’s own words, phrases, sentences and narratives related to the research question were extracted. These ‘moments of meaning’ were then arranged in clusters and themes before being combined and subjected to interpretation. Results and Discussion: Six faculty members were interviewed, and each transcript generated between 41-65 ‘moments of meaning’, from which duplications and redundancies were removed. The themes that emerged were related to becoming a teacher, professional identity and perception of personal development. In becoming a teacher, there was a diversity of pathways into teaching, participants had mainly been identified as academic or bright and encouraged to join or participate in the academic activities of their discipline on completion of postgraduate training. Health professionals usually come into higher education with an identity as a clinician already formed, and they must negotiate developing or adding a new one as an educator. The departments and professional association provided a network for the source and dissemination of information about teaching, learning and education research. This networking played was a key enabler of informal learning. Conclusion: The non-attenders were largely independent and organise their own learning opportunities, goals and objectives. Their drive and motivation can help other faculty, particularly in being able to articulate their learning needs, so that FD can be more purposive and needs directed.