Disorienting or Transforming? Using the Arts and Humanities to Foster Social Advocacy

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Arts and Humanities
• Social Advocacy

Background:

• Arts and humanities (AH) pedagogies show potential for personal and professional growth in medical learners.
• Existing research suggests AH can enhance social advocacy skills, but this area needs further exploration.
• The role of AH in advancing social advocacy training within medical education is under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify how arts and humanities (AH) facilitate transformative learning in social advocacy within medical education.
• To explore the application of AH in developing social advocacy competencies in future physicians.

Main Methods:

• A critical narrative review of the literature was conducted.
• Eleven articles were identified through searches of seven databases and MedEdPORTAL.
• The identified articles were analyzed for their relation to transformative learning tenets: disorientation/dissonance, critical reflection, and discourse/dialogue.

Main Results:

• Arts and humanities are utilized in diverse ways to promote transformative learning for social advocacy.
• Most reviewed approaches primarily focus on eliciting disorientation and dissonance.
• Limited evidence exists on the utility of AH for critical reflection and discourse/dialogue in this context.

Conclusions:

• The full potential of AH for transformative social advocacy learning is constrained by insufficient emphasis on critical reflection and dialogue.
• Future research should explore novel AH-based approaches for deeper engagement with transformative learning principles in medical education.
• Developing robust methods integrating AH is crucial for enhancing social advocacy training in medicine.