Abstract
‘There are only two sorts of job always open under the English social system – domestic service and education. However abominable one's record, though one may be fresh from prison or the lunatic asylum, one can always look after the silver or teach the young. I had not the right presence for a footman so I chose the latter.’
Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh read history at Hertford College, Oxford. He did little study, and when asked in later life what he did at college he replied ‘I drank for Hertford’. He got a third class degree and – willing to take any sort of job – he started work as a teacher at a school in Wales. Unhappy in this post he claims to have attempted suicide by swimming out to sea, but he turned back after being stung by a jellyfish. He tried another school but was no happier there and fell foul of the authorities for trying to seduce the nurse. He put his teaching experience to good use, however, in his first novel, Decline and Fall. The book charts the career of Paul Pennyfeather, a student wrongly expelled from Oxford for indecency. On leaving Oxford the college porter advises him to become a teacher as ‘that's what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour.’
Education has come on a long way since the early twentieth century. Medical education, we hope, has come even further. The days when teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students was seen as a kind of second class activity are by and large behind us but medical educators continue to face challenges. 1 There is still no clear career route for those who want spend a substantial amount of their time in medical education, nor is there a clear curriculum outlining the capabilities expected of teachers. Although medical education research is being included in the national Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 for the first time as a specific discipline, many feel that the quality of much medical education research is still lagging behind clinical research. 2
Until now, there has been no unifying body setting standards in medical education. 3 The Academy of Medical Educators hopes to change this. The Academy is ‘the professional organisation for all involved in the education and training of medical students and doctors.’ 4 Recently established, the Academy will provide leadership, promote standards and support all those involved in the academic discipline of medical education. It will promote research and will lay out a clear curriculum for medical educators. Already progress is being made on many of these fronts.
A draft curriculum has been drawn up and is available on the Academy website at http://www.medicaleducators.org/resources.asp. The curriculum group has chosen educational roles as themes and hopes that this will allow ‘many different kinds of educators to see how they may develop within current roles as well as adopt new ones’. The themes it concentrates on are the core values of educational professionals, design and planning of learning activities, teaching and supporting learners, assessment and feedback to learners, educational scholarship and educational governance. But none of this is set in stone. If you feel that the curriculum group should take a different approach or has missed important concepts then do get in touch via the website.
The Academy will also speak out for its members and learners on important issues of the day. Already it has drawn up a response to the Tooke report and will provide an educationalist perspective on other such reports in the future. 5
So what can the Academy do for you? Quite simply it will give you the opportunity to show your expertise in medical education through a formal process. In other words, it will enable you get credit and recognition for work that has too often gone unrecognized in the past. It is open to clinicians and non-clinicians and is not just for those working full-time in medical education. 6 The Academy was once an aspiration but is now a reality: the first council meeting took place in January 2008, and further meetings are planned throughout the year. Foundation members will not be turning back, even if they are stung by jellyfish. Now is the time to join if you want into influence the Academy's strategy and direction.
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