Setting the agenda for dental education in Scotland: a priority setting exercise including multiple stakehiolders

Introduction The Scottish Oral Health Research Collaboration identified dental education research (DER) as a key strand of their strategy,(1) leading to the formation of the Dental Education Research Group. The starting point for this group was to understand various stakeholders’ perceptions of research priorities, yet no existing studies were found. The aim of the current study was to identify DER priorities for Scotland in the next 3-5 years. Methods The study utilised a similar methodology to that of Dennis et al,(2) in medical education. Data were collected sequentially using two online questionnaires with multiple dental stakeholders represented at undergraduate and postgraduate levels across urban and rural Scotland. 85 participants completed questionnaire 1 (qualitative) and 649 participants completed questionnaire 2 (quantitative). Qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches were used. Results Of the 24 priorities identified, the top priorities were: role of assessments in identifying competence; undergraduate curriculum prepares for practice; and promoting teamwork within the dental team. Following factor analysis, the priorities loaded on four factors: teamwork and professionalism, measuring and enhancing performance, personal and professional development challenges, and curriculum integration and innovation. The top barriers were lack of time, funding, staff motivation, valuing of DER, and resources/ infrastructure. Discussion There were many similarities between the identified priorities for dental and medical education research2, but also some notable differences, which will be discussed. Overwhelmingly, the identified priorities in dentistry related to fitness for practice and robust assessment practices. Take home message Priority setting exercises with multiple stakeholders are an important first step in developing a national research strategy. References 1. Bagg J, Macpherson L, Mossey P, Rennie J, Saunders B, Taylor M (2010) Strategy for Oral Health Research in Scotland. Edinburgh: The Scottish Government. 2. Dennis A A, Cleland J A, Johnston P, Ker JS, Lough, M Rees CE (2014) Exploring stakeholders’ views of medical education research priorities: a national study. Medical Education, 48(11): 1078-1091.

The flexible citizen: education and citizenship

This paper considers the recent focus on citizenship within education by taking curricular reform within Scottish secondary schooling and its linkage with higher education as a case study. In Scotland the Curriculum for Excellence reform places citizenship as one of the four main capacities that pupils must work towards as part of their education. This is echoed to some extent within higher education through the Enhancement Theme reforms and the focus on graduate attributes. A unifying theme in these reforms is the need for students to work across different disciplines, to develop a cross-disciplinary perspective on the world by, for example, considering issues of sustainability in relation to scientific or technological developments. In this model of curriculum development teaching staff are considered as agents of change, enabling learners to develop their sense of citizenship in response to a fast-paced world of innovation and change. This kind of change is objectified as a need that must be responded to and met if tomorrow’s citizens are to be able to not only cope, but thrive in the world in which they inhabit. As such, the citizen is positioned as an ongoing project, as something to be worked at and worked on. However, this kind of notion of agency cloaks an neoliberal ideological construction of the citizen as a flexible resource for society, and usually in relation to economic output. The paper seeks to subject this construction of the citizen to critical scrutiny in relation to the idea that, in education, learners are developing their ability to be creative and enquiring in order to be adaptive to change.