ERIC Number: EJ1330870
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Mar
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1382-4996
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Available Date: N/A
Student-Faculty Interactions within a Physiotherapy Curriculum in South Africa
Ramklass, Serela S.; Vithal, Renuka
Advances in Health Sciences Education, v27 n1 p49-61 Mar 2022
Interactions between faculty and students in higher education has the potential to influence and shape many aspects of teaching, learning, curricula, student experiences and performance, yet has received little attention as an area of study. This study investigates student-faculty interactions within a physiotherapy curriculum from the perspectives of students, faculty and physiotherapy managers at a South African university. The data, produced through multiple methods, derive from students, faculty and physiotherapy managers underpinned by critical-feminist perspectives. Thematic analysis of the data produced four themes. Two dominant threads emerging from the analysis as characterising student-faculty relationships are the deeply hierarchical relations of power characterised by a lack of caring and concern for students, and the exclusion of wider constructs for interaction; deriving from a particular entrenched medical model. Ironically, while caring relationships with patients are overtly advocated and developed, they appear to be largely absent in the same physiotherapy curriculum spaces in the relationships between faculty and students. These findings raise questions about how the most foundational attribute of a health science professional, that of caring, is being produced through the curriculum in the relationship between faculty and students in the health sciences.
Descriptors: Teacher Student Relationship, Interaction, Physical Therapy, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Power Structure, Caring, Health Sciences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Identifiers - Location: South Africa
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Author Affiliations: N/A