Teaching context and philosophy

In 2017 I moved from Scotland to NSW to embrace the challenge of leading, convening and teaching a newly introduced Phase 1 (years 1 and 2) of the undergraduate Medicine program in the University of New South Wales Rural Clinical Campus, Port Macquarie, 450km from UNSW Sydney. For more than two decades, UNSW has provided strategically important rural medical education at five rural/regional sites for Years 3-6 of the undergraduate Medicine program, but in 2017 access to the full 6-year UNSW medical degree was made possible for the first time ever in a rural setting.  

Rural medical schools are an important component of the healthcare system in Australia, and they exist, in part, to help address the gap in provision of healthcare between metropolitan and rural/regional environments. Some 30% of the Australian population live in regional, remote and very remote areas (RRR), but access to healthcare presents a challenge in these places. Rural medical schools were first established to provide medical teaching facilities outside metropolitan areas of Australia, recognising that those who train rurally are more likely to practice rurally. In addition, RRR students consistently underperform educationally compared with metropolitan students and the Rural Clinical Schools help address the gap by providing more opportunities for RRR students to progress from school to medical studies in rural settings.

This context is important to my teaching philosophy, as my background is founded on a dedication for widening participation in education, having worked in some of Scotland’s top universities and observed firsthand the discrepancies in educational opportunities for those from socially deprived backgrounds. I saw an opportunity to use my existing educational expertise in working to widen access to tertiary education to help address this gap in rural and regional Australia, and successfully sought my appointment as Academic Lead to develop and implement the Phase 1 program, and to teach across all disciplines in Phase 1.

My key responsibility as Phase 1 Academic Lead is to ensure that RCC designs/delivers engaging, challenging learning experiences in ways that increase student recruitment, engagement and retention. However, I see my role as more than academic and view my primary purpose as ensuring that our students experience what Peter Felten terms a ‘relentless welcome’. That they feel a sense of belonging and connectedness with each other, with their teachers, support staff, the University and the wider community in which they live. It is up to me to create a psychologically safe space, in which they are free to express themselves without judgement and where they have freedom to make mistakes and learn from them in a supported environment. I think as educators our role is to prepare students not just to pass their exams, but to participate effectively in our society, beyond the specifics of their qualification, whatever that may be. My teaching philosophy is firmly student-centered; just as patients are firmly at the heart of healthcare, so students should be at the heart of education.