Exploring the Challenges of Incorporating Holistic Midwifery into the University Midwifery Education Structure in Ontario and British Columbia
Loading...
Date
2009-04-21T12:54:17Z
Authors
Crewe, Carolina
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The development of University Midwifery Education Programs (UMEPs) has been
a key component of the midwifery professionalization process in Ontario and British
Columbia. The choice to develop UMEPs has set a standard for professional midwifery
training which it is anticipated subsequently legislated provinces in Canada will follow.
The goal of this study is to highlight the gendered struggles of midwifery, as a femaledominated
and historically marginalized occupational group, in its attempt to integrate
into preexisting hierarchies of the university structure. This analysis has suggested that
other similarly located marginalized groups attempting integration into a university
structure are likely to experience similar exclusionary strategies related to factors
including gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. Evident from this study are specific
challenges of this process including tensions around inter-professional collaboration and
faculty sharing with dominant disciplines such as Health Sciences and/or Medicine,
enculturation of masculine/feminine professional characteristics, struggles to value
practicum learning components, visibility/obscurity within the university, struggles for
achieving diversity in the student/client population, gendered dimensions of earnings
potential and labour mobility. Recommendations from the findings of this study
encourage future education design committees to take into consideration the economic,
cultural, material and ideological barriers and challenges facing women in the context of
practice as the predominant applicants, professionals and clients for this profession.
Description
Keywords
Medical education , Sex discrimination , Holistic education , Midwives , Education , University , British Columbia , Ontario , Study and teaching , Midwifery