About Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Health Professions Education

The discussion on Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) has emerged in Health Professions Education (HPE) in recent years, although at a comparatively slower rate than in any other fields such as global health. We are witnessing an era of dismantling of power by journals such as The BMJ Global Health and JAMA, which have appointed Black health equity advocates as their editors in-chief. Several other journals and publishers have taken up EDI issues with a focus on improving equity in global health.

In many parts of the world, HPE still remains predominantly rooted in Western, colonial precepts. Through this MedEdPublish collection on ‘Perspectives on Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Health Professions Education (HPE)’, we (the guest advisors of this issue) aim to invite perspectives which both support and challenge EDI to the fore.

Why do we want to give a place to both supportive and critical perspective of EDI? We contend that it is only when we, as scholars and educators, face both support for and reservations against EDI, will we be able to meaningfully predicate impact mirrored in lived experiences of people in the world. Let’s explore open discussion on; why or why not EDI, who should and should not be kept in mind when designing EDI initiatives, who does or does not benefit from EDI measures, who suffers or does not suffer from EDI measures, and what are the long-term effects, etc..

MedEdPublish is an ideal platform on which to initiate this discussion as contributions are immediately published. Peer review happens after publication, so all voices have equity. Once the collection is concluded, we (the guest advisors) will write a dialectical analysis (“a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides”¹) summing and reflecting on what the contributing voices communicate . We hope to receive theoretical, empirical, opinion, case study, review and practical papers on topics such as (but not  restricted to ):

• EDI work: A blessing or a curse/Justice or Injustice
• An EDI perspective on different topics in HPE, such as admissions/selection, identity development, competency development and performance, curricula, experiences in education, patient outcomes, assessment, accreditation, etc.
• EDI as a guiding principle/or not in HPE
• EDI in HPE and health literature and publishing practices
• The EDI versus Meritocracy debate: Are they mutually exclusive?
• EDI at local/national/regional/global levels

¹Hegel’s Dialectics. (2016). Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on 3^rd May 2023 from:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel-dialectics/

Deadline for submissions: 30th of November 2023

Keywords: equity; diversity; inclusion; discrimination; representation

Any questions about this collection? Please get in contact directly with editorial@mededpublish.org.