Implementing Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Health Professional Education: A Realist Review

Abstract

In response to the greater public awareness of anti-Indigenous racism within Canada’s health care system, the nation’s health education programs are under increasing pressure to incorporate anti-racist approaches in their training of health professionals. But implementation of curricular content about racism has been slow to emerge in these programs and a focus on culture rather than racial oppression persists. Few guidelines currently exist to assist in the application of anti-racist pedagogy in health education, and the published research in this area is relatively limited. The purpose of this systematic review was to explore the peer-reviewed literature using a critical realist framework to identify the factors and processes that influence the implementation of anti-racist teaching in a health context. The findings highlight the role of human actors, contextual factors, and pedagogical processes in either facilitating or impeding the advancement of anti-racist pedagogy in health education.