Doctoral students as agents for change: shaping our public health training environment

Only four included articles had an explicit positionality statement by the author(s); two of these had ambiguity about whether the positionality was the author(s)' or the instructor's.

“Only four articles had an explicit positionality statement by the author(s) (43–46); however, two of these had some relative ambiguity whether the positionality reported was that of the author(s) or if it was simply relaying the positionality of the instructor they were reporting on.”

McSorley and colleagues' work validated these recommendations as an organic, positive consequence of engaging with peers, proposing counter-curriculums, and fostering safe counter-spaces, and they created a working group of more than 10 graduate students that developed a counter-curriculum including U.S. colonial history, historical trauma, theories of embodiment, and alternative methodologies.

“In doing so, they created a working group of more than 10 graduate students that developed a counter-curriculum that included content on the theoretical and methodological topics currently omitted within public health curriculum such as U.S. colonial history, historical trauma, theories of embodiment, and alternative methodologies.”

The snowballing methodology used in this scoping review produced only one additional article, likely because four of the ten articles identified as "ideal candidates" have not received any reported citations.

“Due to the late onset of these publications, the snowballing methodology used in this scoping review produced only one additional article likely due to four of the ten articles identified as “ideal candidates” have not received any reported citations (43, 45, 46, 52).”

Several authors approached cultivating inclusive and safe learning environments by collaborating with their students at the start of the course, while others recognized the importance of fostering these environments to foster candid sharing and reflection among peers.

“Due to this scoping review focusing on institutions of higher education, several authors approached cultivating inclusive and safe learning environments by collaborating with their students at the start of the course (52, 59), while others recognized the importance of fostering these environments to foster candid sharing and reflection among peers (46, 53).”

More than half of the identified articles were published after 2020.

“It is essential to recognize that more than half of the identified articles were published after 2020 (45, 46, 50, 51, 59, 62, 63, 65, 66, 68).”