Adaptive reinventing: implicit bias and the co-construction of social change
Abstract
Emerging research on implicit bias recognition and management within health professions describes individually focused educational interventions without considering workplace influences. Workplace learning theories highlight how individual agency and workplace structures dynamically interact to produce change within individuals and learning environments. Promoting awareness of individual biases shaped by clinical learning environments may therefore represent a unique type of workplace learning. We sought to explore how individuals and the workplace learning environment interact once awareness of implicit biases are triggered within learners. In accordance with longitudinal case study methodology and informed by constructivist grounded theory, we conducted multiple longitudinal interviews with physician and nurse participants over 12 months. Our results suggest that implicit bias recognition provokes dissonance among participants leading to frustration, and critical questioning of workplace constraints. Once awareness is triggered, participants began reflecting on their biases and engaging in explicit behavioural changes that influenced the perception of structural changes within the learning environment itself. Collaboration, communication and role modeling within teams appeared to facilitate the process as individual and workplace affordances were gradually transformed. Our findings suggest a potential model for understanding how individual learners adaptively reinvent their role in response to disruptions in their learning environment.
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Workplace learning theories differ in how they incorporate the role of individual agency, and CHAT has faced the criticism of privileging the social over the individual.
“Additionally, workplace learning theories differ in how they incorporate the role of individual agency54 and CHAT has faced the criticism of privileging the social over the individual.”
From Cultural Historical Activity Theory for Studying Practice-Based Learning and Change in Medical Education (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
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- Authors
- Sukhera, J., Milne, A., Teunissen, P. W., Lingard, L., & Watling, C.
- Affiliations
- Western University (CA)
- London Health Sciences Centre (CA)
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Sukhera, Javeed
- Venue
- Advances in Health Sciences Education
- Published
- 2018-02-17
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 587-599
- ISSN
- 1382-4996 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-1677
- OpenAlex
- W2794321710
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 5.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Advances in Health Sciences Education (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario
- Associated Medical Services
- Children's Health Foundation - London Health Sciences Centre
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- implicit bias, bias awareness, workplace learning, clinical learning environment, social change, role modeling, team collaboration, individual agency, health professions education
- MeSH terms
- Awareness, Communication, Cooperative Behavior, Humans, Inservice Training, Interviews as Topic, Learning, Longitudinal Studies, Nurses, Physicians, Prejudice, Social Change, Workplace, Organizational Case Studies, Grounded Theory
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