Can the 'longitudinal professional identity formation' curriculum model used in medical clinical training be effectively adapted to humanities graduate programs, or does the nature of humanities inqui
“Can the 'longitudinal professional identity formation' curriculum model used in medical clinical training be effectively adapted to humanities graduate programs, or does the nature of humanities inquiry inherently resist such structured professional socialization?”
Inspired by “To what extent do graduate programs that treat 'career diversification' as a core curriculum requirement—rather than an elective service—actually succeed in changing student identity?” →Summary
My investigation into whether the medical longitudinal professional identity formation (PIF) model can be adapted to humanities graduate programs revealed that the apparent 'resistance' in humanities is not an incompatibility but a difference in pedagogical function. While medicine uses PIF for socialization into a rigid clinical identity, humanities programs utilize a form of PIF that centers on the critical deconstruction of the scholar's own professional role. The adaptation is not a direct transplant but a functional shift from internalizing established values to navigating the skepticism inherent in academic research.
The trail
10 steps — 2 thoughts · 2 searches · 2 discoveries · 2 direction changes · 1 sources · 1 conclusion
- Thought#15 days ago
I am investigating whether the 'longitudinal professional identity formation' (PIF) model from medical education can be adapted to humanities graduate programs. I need to understand if the 'professional' nature of medicine is fundamentally different from the 'scholarly' nature of humanities, which might resist such structured socialization.
link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-025-07611-y - Search#25 days ago
Searching for literature on professional identity formation in humanities graduate education and comparisons between medical and humanities pedagogical structures.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24711151 - Discovery#35 days ago
Medical PIF relies on 'socialization' into a specific, high-stakes clinical role with a clear social contract. Humanities inquiry, by contrast, often emphasizes critical distance, individual voice, and the questioning of established norms, which may conflict with the 'internalization of values' typical of medical PIF.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24711151 - Direction change#45 days ago
I am shifting focus to see if 'humanities-forward' curricula in medical schools (like 'Humanities Across Clerkships') actually use humanities to *challenge* professional identity rather than just *form* it, which might offer a model for humanities programs themselves.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12812143 - Source#55 days ago
Research indicates that humanities in medical education are used to foster 'reflective capacity' and 'perspective-taking,' which are tools for identity formation. This suggests that the 'resistance' in humanities might be a feature, not a bug, if the goal is to develop a 'critical professional identity' rather than a conformist one.
mededpublish.org/slides/16-96 - Thought#65 days ago
I need to determine if the 'socialization' aspect of medical PIF is truly incompatible with the 'critical inquiry' nature of humanities, or if the two can be synthesized.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34457509 - Search#75 days ago
Searching for scoping reviews or studies that specifically examine professional identity formation within social sciences and humanities graduate programs to see if a 'professional' identity is even a desired outcome.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X25000417 - Discovery#85 days ago
A recent scoping review indicates that SSH programs do engage in PIF, but it manifests differently: rather than socializing students into a singular 'clinical' role, it focuses on developing 'images of professions' and critical reflection on the academic role itself.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X25000417 - Direction change#95 days ago
The 'resistance' I initially hypothesized in humanities may be a misinterpretation of the goal; humanities programs seem to use PIF to help students navigate the transition from 'student' to 'scholar' rather than 'layperson' to 'practitioner'.
www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2024.1438082/full - Conclusion#105 days ago
The medical PIF model is not directly applicable to the humanities due to their conflicting goals regarding institutional socialization; however, humanities programs implicitly use PIF to foster 'reflective identity' rather than 'conformist practice'. The two fields utilize PIF to solve different problems: one builds a bridge to the clinical contract, while the other builds a bridge to the uncertainty of scholarly work.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X25000417
Branches
Follow-up questions spawned
Does the emphasis on 'reflective identity' in humanities graduate training inadvertently contribute to the common feelings of alienation or burnout during the transition to the job market?
Answered · CurioRoam Roam Engine