Autonomy, identity, and design in the COVID-19 era

This chapter examines the state of response and likely long-term implications across the continuum of place types for older adults, from independent housing to skilled nursing, with a focus on how physical settings and technological systems can empower autonomy and identity. It does so by adopting a person-environment (P-E) exchange framework as articulated by Chaudhury and Oswald (J Aging Stud 51:100821, 2019) This framework is structured in three sections: components of P-E interaction, P-E processes, and environment-related outcomes. Components of P-E interaction include individual characteristics, social factors, physical/built environments, and technological systems with this chapter focusing on the last two. These components form a milieu within which the dialectic interaction between agency and belonging occurs and ultimately informs assessments regarding autonomy and identity. Emergent themes discussed in this chapter include a heightened emphasis on inclusive housing models, age-friendly integration of technology, environmental flexibility in design and programming, and enhanced support for the needs of caregivers. Examining place change through an integrative P-E framework offers a lens to understanding what implications to agency and belonging might be tied to modifications in the physical and technological environment in response to COVID-19 and how that might inform outcomes related to autonomy and identity among older adults. The environmental responses to COVID-19 will accelerate the ability of independent housing to serve individuals longer in their homes and should promote a radical embrace of small house approaches to skilled care, thereby challenging assisted living as a place type altogether. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Changing the narrative: Exploring how music therapy can assist adolescents dealing with race-based traumatic stress

The impact of racism on teens of color can be life-altering. Young people of color are still susceptible to the effects of racial discrimination so long as racism exists. Today's boundless access to social media has created a platform for exposing racist acts. Racism today presents itself in such forms as microaggressions, racial biases, and systemic oppression by means of policing, healthcare, housing, and education. This chapter explores those options through the framework of race-related trauma. Throughout adolescence, the formation of identity can predict either a successful sense of identity or a fall into a role of confusion. The healthy development of racial identity for an adolescent of color is essential and is not separate from identity formation. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the extent of racism in healthcare, economic, and living disparities. Advancements in digital technology present opportunities for autonomy in the music creation process for adolescents. This makes therapeutic songwriting a powerful intervention, as it addresses these ideals. Music therapy provides the opportunity to practice an uncommon form of cultural humility and rapport. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Understanding of professionalism among medical students in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic - a qualitative monocentric study.

Objective: The existing literature indicates that medical students' understanding of professionalism is influenced by internal and external factors. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate whether the early phase of the pandemic affected the understanding of professionalism among medical students at the University of Ulm. Methods: In May and June 2020, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 21 students (in the 8th and 9th semester) at the Medical Faculty of the University of Ulm. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. Results: The results showed shifts in students' perception of the importance of certain aspects of medical professionalism. Not only competency in the disciplines hygiene, virology, and microbiology came to the fore, but also personal qualities such as "radiating a sense of calm", empathy, and altruism; communicative competency; and the capacity for reflection. The students also perceived changes in the expectations placed on them. More emphasis was placed on their roles as scientific or medical advisors and as helpers in the health care system, a change that was sometimes emotionally stressful. With respect to the study objective, both limiting and supporting factors were named. For example, the clarification of the relevance of the medical professional was motivating. Conclusion: The study showed that students' understanding of professionalism depends on context, as was suggested by earlier studies in experts. The perception of changed role expectations may thereby also play a role. One consequence of the findings may be to address such dynamics in suitable curricular events and discuss them with students to prevent them proceeding in an uncontrolled manner.

Professionalism in small group learning between face-to-face and virtual settings: a mixed-methods study.

Objectives: To explore whether and how preclinical medical students changed perceptions and behaviors related to professionalism in small group learning activities from face-to-face to virtual during the pandemic. Methods: The study used a mixed-methods sequential research design. We first retrospectively examined quantitative data from 101 medical students who completed mandatory peer evaluation surveys assessing professional behaviors of small group members in two courses (one face-to-face, the other online). Differences between student perceptions in two settings were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Findings from the quantitative stage were probed further using focus groups at the qualitative stage. Six focus groups (n = 27) were conducted using purposeful sampling. Interviews were transcribed and inductive thematic coding was used to identify emerging themes. Results: We found a significant decrease in perceptions of punctuality and attendance in the virtual setting compared to face-to-face learning (Z=-6.211, p<.001), despite lower expectations of their peers in online learning. Five major themes emerged from the qualitative data: punctuality/participation, camera usage, dress code/conversational style, multitasking, and engagement/accountability. Participants showed sensitivity when conceptualizing professional conduct, indicating the dynamic process of professional identity formation at the early stage of their career. Conclusions: Results show that students' perceptions of professionalism become contextualized, significantly influenced by the background of the virtual learning environment. Intentional communication about professionalism within specific sociocultural and educational contexts is vital for individual professional identity formation. These findings support of the importance of considering context when educational programs develop curricula and establish expectations related to professionalism.

To Learn or Not to Learn: Perceptions Towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Self-identity Among English Language Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a pivot towards digital teaching and learning. This study aims to assess the perceptions of self-identity and continuing professional development (CPD) among secondary school English teachers in Hong Kong in light of the academic paradigm shift triggered by the pandemic. Methods: A mixed methods approach is adopted. A quantitative survey (n = 1158) was complemented by qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with English teachers in Hong Kong (n = 9). The quantitative survey offered group perspectives related to CPD and role perception in the current context. Interviews offered exemplar views on professional identity, training and development, and change and continuity. Results: The results reveal that collaboration among educators, development of higher-order critical thinking in students, refining knowledge about teaching methods, and being a good learner and motivator were among the key traits that comprised the teacher identity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased workload, time pressure and stress associated with the paradigm shift during the pandemic resulted in lower voluntary involvement of teachers in CPD. However, a significant need for the development of information communications technology (ICT) skills is emphasised as educators in Hong Kong received relatively little ICT support from their schools. Conclusion: The results have implications for pedagogy and research. Schools are recommended to enhance technical support of educators and help them acquire more advanced digital skills to work effectively in the new environment. Reduction of the administrative workload and providing more autonomy to teachers is expected to lead to greater engagement in CPD and improvements in teaching.

Changing the narrative of disengagement: Exploring academic identity formation for non-ethno-European students

The COVID-19 pandemic and the changing demographics of the American identity have drawn attention to the necessity of reforming the Ethno-European education system to meet the needs of a diverse student population. If the educational landscape is to be transformed to meet the needs of a growing non-Ethno-European student population, more research is needed to explore factors that increase non-Ethno-European students' academic engagement. This research attempted to identify individual and systemic factors contributing to non-Ethno-European students' academic engagement during secondary education. This exploration began by outlining the role a cohesive identity continuum has on education engagement for non-Ethno-European students. Antecedent moderators of academic engagement for non-Ethno-European students were explored utilizing the seminal work of attachment theory by John Bowlby (1969) and Mary Ainsworth (1991), the Psychosocial Development of Identity Formation theory by Erik Erikson (1950), and Social Identity theory by Tajfel (1972). This exploratory research used a Convergent-Parallel Mixed Method design to evaluate potential antecedent moderators during the 2020-2021 academic year. The Convergent-Parallel Mixed Method used three research instruments to explore whether Ethnic Identity, Grit, and other school engagement factors (SEI) contribute to student attendance. The research also used a semi-structured interview to explore teacher and student perceptions and expectations about factors influencing student engagement. For this research, student engagement is defined as the number of days students attend school. As such, the terms student engagement and the number of days students attended school is used synonymously throughout the dissertation.The QUAN portion of the research utilized varies from three research instruments: Ethnic Identity Scale, Grit Scale, and Student Engagement Scale (SEI), as well as the number of days students attended school during the 2020-2021 school year. The QUAN portion of the research revealed statistically significant differences between grade-level groups, 10th graders and 12th graders, as well as among Gender, males, and females, for the Grit scale, though the variables were not statistically significant predictors of student attendance. In the QUAL portion of the research, a semi-structured interview was conducted to explore student and teacher perceptions of factors that increase or decrease school engagement. This research portion points to students' psychosocial moratorium as an antecedent factor influencing student and teacher classroom interactions. Lastly, a teacher's Psychological Grind appears to be an essential phenomenon with theoretical implications among teachers of non-Ethno-European students. A teacher's Psychological Grind may facilitate the intersectionality between a student's psychosocial moratorium and academic engagement. A teacher's Psychological Grind is defined as the ability of an educator to remain emotionally and psychologically engaged and consistent, despite a student's emotional and cognitive instability. The finding points to the need for further research on how students' attachment patterns contribute to their psychosocial moratorium influencing biases and perceptions about the education system and its teachers well before entering the classroom. Teachers have a brief window of opportunity to contribute to a healthy attachment with students. Teachers must attune, grasp, interpret, and respond to the student's internal and external needs to create a healthy attachment to students. Focusing on a teacher's and student's attachment patterns, the student's psychosocial moratorium, and a teacher's Psychological Grind has the potential to guide future research in exploring attachment patterns as antecedent moderating factors of school engagement among non-Ethno-European students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Perceptions of clinical supervision held by early-career social workers during times of extreme stress: A thematic analysis

This qualitative research study explores perceptions of post-masters, early-career social workers regarding their clinical supervisory relationships during the Covid-19 global pandemic. Twenty-one pre-licensed social workers were interviewed regarding experiences of how their supervisory relationships affected continued professional and personal development during the rapid transition to virtual social work and subsequent stressors of the pandemic. Relational, trauma, and intersectionality theories informed the study. Thematic analysis of the data suggested the presence of stress-related responses associated with the pandemic and shared communal traumas, such as police violence against Black people, anti-Asian hate and violence, and national political unrest. The ability of new social workers to talk openly about intersectionality and other social justice issues with their clinical supervisors created mutual trust, influenced their professional and personal identity development, and contributed to feelings of connection and support within the relationship during times of extreme stress created by the pandemic era. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The impact of COVID-19 on identity formation, coping, and college transition of NCAA greek student-athletes

The spread of Covid-19 has been a disruptive force on society, wreaking unprecedented havoc on people's daily lives. This unwelcomed disruption has mirrored elements of forced transition, bringing psychological symptoms and the psychosocial impact previously seen in athletes whose athletic careers are unexpectedly terminated by injury, deselection, or another similar traumatic event. For International Student-Athletes (ISA), the transition to college is a period marked by multiple challenges since they have to adjust to a new academic, athletic, social, and cultural environment. Covid-19, perceived as a significant transition, hit the first-year ISAs while going through the traditional process of transitioning to college. This study explored the perceptions of Greek student-athletes who experienced the Covid-19 transition during their first year of college in the United States. Aspects of subjective well-being and identity formation were assessed. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology (CQR), findings suggest that studying and playing at a competitive level was the top motivation for Greek ISAs to pursue a degree in the United States. The American experience favorably impacted Greek ISAs (e.g., maturity, open-mindedness, professionalism), while the compulsory athletic restriction and social isolation during the Covid-19 outbreak posed additional psychosocial challenges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Identity and the courage to be: From Kierkegaard to COVID-19

Who am I? How can I be true to myself? How can I be authentic given the world I live in? These questions have been explored by existentialist philosophers, positioning courage in the face of dread as central to the development of a unique, embodied identity. Rather than being a fixed construct, based solely on the circumstances of birth or prescribed roles and stereotypes, identity can be created, after experience and despite anxiety, fleeting, liminal a part of the continued process of individuation. In this chapter I will trace the existentialist approach to identity, from the spiritual dimensions of Kierkegaard and Tillich to the humanist self-determined reinvention of Sartre. I will consider the ontology of selfhood further, particularly through the fleeting temporal and storied conceptualizations of Heidegger and Ricoeur, highlighting our identity as a continuous process of becoming. Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty will also remind us that identity cannot be understood with reference to materiality, specifically our historicity (being in the world) and corporeal body. Any discussion of roles and stereotypes, however, must also consider oppression and marginalization as primary threats to non-being. I will consider critical existentialisms, including the feminism of Simone de Beauvoir, the post-colonialism of Fanon, and the identity politics of Judith Butler. Lastly we will turn to the dynamics of identity in an era of global dread, exploring the ways in which the anthropocentrism of traditional existentialism is inadequate for the crises of climate and Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Identification and physical disconnect in Russian foreign policy: Georgia as a Western proxy once again?

Evolving official Russian identifications of Georgia amount to a dangerous securitisation of this small neighbour – achieved through a focus not on Georgia itself but on Western engagement in the region. With the long absence of face-to-face diplomatic encounters and contact, the Russian idea of Georgia as a ‘Western proxy' has become entrenched. This article advances a social explanation of Russian foreign policy that speaks to geopolitical explanations in foregrounding great power interaction and security by drawing on insights from a discourse-theoretical reading of securitisation theory. It adds value to social explanations by showing how the identification of another political entity can be changed into that of a ‘proxy' through its integration into a larger ‘radically different other', and how this expansion occurs in interplay with interpretations of physical manifestations of the larger ‘radically different other' in the ‘proxy'. Finally, it draws attention to the impact of physical encounters on foreign policy in these times of COVID-19, war, and growing isolationism in world affairs.

Perceptions of clinical supervision held by early-career social workers during times of extreme stress: A thematic analysis

This qualitative research study explores perceptions of post-masters, early-career social workers regarding their clinical supervisory relationships during the Covid-19 global pandemic. Twenty-one pre-licensed social workers were interviewed regarding experiences of how their supervisory relationships affected continued professional and personal development during the rapid transition to virtual social work and subsequent stressors of the pandemic. Relational, trauma, and intersectionality theories informed the study. Thematic analysis of the data suggested the presence of stress-related responses associated with the pandemic and shared communal traumas, such as police violence against Black people, anti-Asian hate and violence, and national political unrest. The ability of new social workers to talk openly about intersectionality and other social justice issues with their clinical supervisors created mutual trust, influenced their professional and personal identity development, and contributed to feelings of connection and support within the relationship during times of extreme stress created by the pandemic era. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The impact of COVID-19 on identity formation, coping, and college transition of NCAA greek student-athletes

The spread of Covid-19 has been a disruptive force on society, wreaking unprecedented havoc on people's daily lives. This unwelcomed disruption has mirrored elements of forced transition, bringing psychological symptoms and the psychosocial impact previously seen in athletes whose athletic careers are unexpectedly terminated by injury, deselection, or another similar traumatic event. For International Student-Athletes (ISA), the transition to college is a period marked by multiple challenges since they have to adjust to a new academic, athletic, social, and cultural environment. Covid-19, perceived as a significant transition, hit the first-year ISAs while going through the traditional process of transitioning to college. This study explored the perceptions of Greek student-athletes who experienced the Covid-19 transition during their first year of college in the United States. Aspects of subjective well-being and identity formation were assessed. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology (CQR), findings suggest that studying and playing at a competitive level was the top motivation for Greek ISAs to pursue a degree in the United States. The American experience favorably impacted Greek ISAs (e.g., maturity, open-mindedness, professionalism), while the compulsory athletic restriction and social isolation during the Covid-19 outbreak posed additional psychosocial challenges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

"Am I even a med-student anymore?" A Mixed-Methods Study of the Impact of the Initial Disruptions Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Professional Identity Formation.

Purpose: Developing a professional identity requires learners to integrate themselves into the medical profession and take on the role of doctor. The impact of COVID-19 on medical education has been widely investigated, but little attention has been paid to the impact of students' professional identify formation (PIF). The goal of this study was to investigate the impact that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had on medical students' PIF. Materials and Methods: An embedded mixed-methods design was utilized. Focus groups were conducted with a subset of year 1-4 students and coded using thematic analysis. Year 1-2 students were surveyed about their professional identity integration in the spring of 2020. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed rank and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Qualitative data were organized into six themes that touched on losses and challenges, reflection, and reevaluation of the physician career. Roughly 50% of MS1s and MS2s reported a change in their professional identity integration, but this was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Medical education does not occur in isolation and is influenced by disruptive local and global events. Students perceived challenges when in-person community interaction and hands-on clinical experiences were interrupted. Additionally, students reflected upon their own role and their future career goals. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-022-01652-4.

Potential of Volunteering in Formal and Informal Medical Education-A Theory-Driven Cross-Sectional Study with Example of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Students' volunteering is an effective way to manage health crises, including pandemics. Due to the limited capacity of the healthcare system at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, the engagement of students in volunteering services seemed invaluable. Based on different teaching-learning theories, in this survey study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of the volunteering service project launched by the Poznan University of Medical Sciences during the COVID-19 pandemic as a learning opportunity for undergraduate healthcare students. The results indicate the potential of involving students in volunteering activities for educational purposes, as well as other values, including attitudes and professional identity development, which could be difficult to realize using traditional teaching methods. However, stimulating students' reflectiveness seems necessary to reach its full educational effectiveness. Medical teachers should provide students with more opportunities for volunteering and service learning and consider making these a constant element of the curriculum beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Every day that I stay at home, it's another day blaming myself for not being at #Frontline"-Understanding medical students' sacrifices during COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 struck the world and stretched the healthcare system and professionals. Medical students engaged in the pandemic effort, making personal and professional sacrifices. However, the impact of these sacrifices on students` professional development is still unknown. We applied constructivist grounded theory to individual audio diaries (total time = 5h38 min) and interviews (total time = 11h57min) performed with 18 last-year medical students during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. The perspective of making sacrifices caused initial emotional distress in medical students, followed by a negotiation process revolving around three themes: predisposition to sacrifice, sense of competence, and sense of belonging. This negotiation process led to three response patterns: Pattern A: "No sense of duty"-the sacrifice was perceived as meaningless, and students showed intense anger and a desire to flee; Pattern B: "Sense of duty with hesitation to act"-the sacrifice was acknowledged as legitime, but students felt unprepared to contribute, leading to feelings of frustration and shame; and, Pattern C: "Sense of duty with readiness to act"-the engagement with the sacrifice was perceived as an opportunity to grow as a doctor, leading to fulfillment and proudness. Students ready to engage with the COVID-19 effort experienced identity consonance, reinforcing their professional identities. Students who felt incompetent or found the sacrifice meaningless experienced identity dissonance, which led to emotional suffering and the consideration of abandoning the course. Monitoring students' emotional reactions when facing professional challenges creates opportunities to problematize the role of sacrifice in the medical profession and scaffold professional identity development.

Identity and the courage to be: From Kierkegaard to COVID-19

Who am I? How can I be true to myself? How can I be authentic given the world I live in? These questions have been explored by existentialist philosophers, positioning courage in the face of dread as central to the development of a unique, embodied identity. Rather than being a fixed construct, based solely on the circumstances of birth or prescribed roles and stereotypes, identity can be created, after experience and despite anxiety, fleeting, liminal a part of the continued process of individuation. In this chapter I will trace the existentialist approach to identity, from the spiritual dimensions of Kierkegaard and Tillich to the humanist self-determined reinvention of Sartre. I will consider the ontology of selfhood further, particularly through the fleeting temporal and storied conceptualizations of Heidegger and Ricoeur, highlighting our identity as a continuous process of becoming. Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty will also remind us that identity cannot be understood with reference to materiality, specifically our historicity (being in the world) and corporeal body. Any discussion of roles and stereotypes, however, must also consider oppression and marginalization as primary threats to non-being. I will consider critical existentialisms, including the feminism of Simone de Beauvoir, the post-colonialism of Fanon, and the identity politics of Judith Butler. Lastly we will turn to the dynamics of identity in an era of global dread, exploring the ways in which the anthropocentrism of traditional existentialism is inadequate for the crises of climate and Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Changing the narrative of disengagement: Exploring academic identity formation for non-ethno-European students

The COVID-19 pandemic and the changing demographics of the American identity have drawn attention to the necessity of reforming the Ethno-European education system to meet the needs of a diverse student population. If the educational landscape is to be transformed to meet the needs of a growing non-Ethno-European student population, more research is needed to explore factors that increase non-Ethno-European students' academic engagement. This research attempted to identify individual and systemic factors contributing to non-Ethno-European students' academic engagement during secondary education. This exploration began by outlining the role a cohesive identity continuum has on education engagement for non-Ethno-European students. Antecedent moderators of academic engagement for non-Ethno-European students were explored utilizing the seminal work of attachment theory by John Bowlby (1969) and Mary Ainsworth (1991), the Psychosocial Development of Identity Formation theory by Erik Erikson (1950), and Social Identity theory by Tajfel (1972). This exploratory research used a Convergent-Parallel Mixed Method design to evaluate potential antecedent moderators during the 2020-2021 academic year. The Convergent-Parallel Mixed Method used three research instruments to explore whether Ethnic Identity, Grit, and other school engagement factors (SEI) contribute to student attendance. The research also used a semi-structured interview to explore teacher and student perceptions and expectations about factors influencing student engagement. For this research, student engagement is defined as the number of days students attend school. As such, the terms student engagement and the number of days students attended school is used synonymously throughout the dissertation.The QUAN portion of the research utilized varies from three research instruments: Ethnic Identity Scale, Grit Scale, and Student Engagement Scale (SEI), as well as the number of days students attended school during the 2020-2021 school year. The QUAN portion of the research revealed statistically significant differences between grade-level groups, 10th graders and 12th graders, as well as among Gender, males, and females, for the Grit scale, though the variables were not statistically significant predictors of student attendance. In the QUAL portion of the research, a semi-structured interview was conducted to explore student and teacher perceptions of factors that increase or decrease school engagement. This research portion points to students' psychosocial moratorium as an antecedent factor influencing student and teacher classroom interactions. Lastly, a teacher's Psychological Grind appears to be an essential phenomenon with theoretical implications among teachers of non-Ethno-European students. A teacher's Psychological Grind may facilitate the intersectionality between a student's psychosocial moratorium and academic engagement. A teacher's Psychological Grind is defined as the ability of an educator to remain emotionally and psychologically engaged and consistent, despite a student's emotional and cognitive instability. The finding points to the need for further research on how students' attachment patterns contribute to their psychosocial moratorium influencing biases and perceptions about the education system and its teachers well before entering the classroom. Teachers have a brief window of opportunity to contribute to a healthy attachment with students. Teachers must attune, grasp, interpret, and respond to the student's internal and external needs to create a healthy attachment to students. Focusing on a teacher's and student's attachment patterns, the student's psychosocial moratorium, and a teacher's Psychological Grind has the potential to guide future research in exploring attachment patterns as antecedent moderating factors of school engagement among non-Ethno-European students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Asian Identity in the Online Classroom

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Asian American students in higher education were faced not only with the move to online learning but the nuances that came with anti-Asian rhetoric and violence in the news. We wanted to understand how the sociopolitical effects of the past two years have affected Asian American engineering students through their experiences in the online setting, as well as highlight the gaps of Asian American engineering students in engineering education research. Using qualitative methods through semi-structured interviews with Asian and Asian American engineering students, we explore Asian and Asian American identity, and sociopolitical matters in the engineering classroom. To understand the views of Asian and Asian American students, we lay out the ways that racial and ethnic identity have been examined in engineering, along with Asian and Asian American identity formation. In this paper, we explore the background of race and equality in engineering and engineering education. Then we look at the results of our interviews, focusing on two main areas. First we look at how students formed social networks and build their identities in these online spaces. Then we look at the role of politicization in the classroom and in engineering and how it relates to Asian identity formation. We close this paper by speculating how Asian and Asian American identity can be better addressed and attended to within engineering education. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Identity and uncertainty: art-mediated medical student reflections in a time of transition.

Medical education comprises intense periods of transition, which can significantly impact student well-being, as well as personal and professional development. In 2020, medical students navigating transitions from pre-clinical to clinical roles were also experiencing the historic forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing societal reckoning with systemic injustice and racism, likely heightening the usual challenges associated with these transitions. Reflection has been suggested as a tool for facilitating such transitions, and arts-mediated approaches hold promise in inspiring authentic reflection, yet they are rarely used to prompt medical student reflection. This article describes common themes in medical students' reflections on a specific period of transition during a unique moment in history, via qualitative analysis of their narrative responses to visual arts-mediated reflective prompts. The authors used a visual arts-based activity to explore medical students' hopes and concerns as they transitioned to clinical clerkships between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years at one academic institution. Qualitative analysis using an exploratory constructivist approach revealed that students' reflections often focused on identity within three main themes: the personal self, the professional self, and the social self. Within these categories, subthemes included uncertainty and concerns focusing on medical training and knowledge, the sense of hope and value inherent to their social connections, critiques of the culture of medical education, and reflections on complicity and responsibility in racial injustice. This article not only provides a cross-sectional snapshot of the experiences of medical students during a historic moment, but also provides themes to guide discussions on training transitions and describes a low-cost, adaptable approach to facilitating deep exploration and reflection on tumultuous moments in training.

Constructing Identity in the Time of Coronavirus: Reading as Recovery

How does a beginning teacher go about constructing a teacherly identity in a pandemic? How does one reconcile what might be with what is, as dictated by the rhetoric of a neoliberal government, which prizes the individual mind over the collective one, the product over the process, and results over relationships? This essay explores these questions through the experience of reading Jane Eyre with a Year 9 English class. Personal and professional stories form the core of this investigation that explores the complexities of finding a teacherly identity;this is a discussion about aims and values and relationships, rather than just ‘effective’ teaching strategies.