Full Description
This book outlines a methodology based on actor-network theory (ANT) and praxiography and applies this to the field of medical education. Drawn from a detailed account of practice in a medical setting, this book shows how researchers in education and medical education can learn to work with ANT approaches and attune to different insights in practice.
The book gives a detailed account of what actor-network theory can bring to research, through the investigation of social and material networks. The philosophical underpinnings of actor-network theory are presented as the basis of this emerging methodology, through an exploration of learning as disruption, practice as human and material assemblages, and power as regulated difference in worlds of practice. This is a qualitative approach for exploring complexity that does not attempt to represent or reduce but allows for unique insights into practice that might otherwise be overlooked.
With a robust grounding in practice and professional learning and actor-network theory, this book will be of great interest for academics, scholars, and postgraduate students in the field of research methods and medical education.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Structure of the book
Chapter 1: ANT as methodology
Background to the research
Actor-network theory and researching learning
The research story
Praxiography as researching practice
A note on COVID-19
Chapter 2: A brief history of ANT
The umbrella term of sociomateriality
Actor-network theory: history and overview
Three dimensions of ANT
ANT in practice
Chapter 3: The research setting
Improvement science: From Gold Standard to Silver Bullet
Student-led improvement science projects
Practice and professional learning
Improvement science and medical education
Learning in medical education and pharmacy studies
Medical education and COVID-19
Chapter 4: The research assemblage
Part 1: Ontological orientation of the analysis
Part 2: Research design
Chapter 5: ANT in the field
Cohort 1: The antibiotic story
Cohort 2: Insulin prescribing
Research summary
Chapter 6: Pedagogies of Improvement Science
Reflections about SLISPs
IHI Practicum network
The symmetry of online practices
Multiple worlds of SLISPs
Chapter 7: The future of ANT as methodology
Key points from the research
Educational implications
ANT and COVID-19
ANT as methodology
ANT and medical education
Conclusion
Chapter 8: Reflections on the research
Networks as an analysis tool
Researching symmetry
Describing multiple worlds
