Becoming blind: Onto/epistemological 'seeing' of white coat literacy & pedagogy

Abstract

Medicine has always been regarded as one of the most significant disciplines, grounded in a humanistic approach, due to its ultimate exposure and connection with people as 'patients' and hence a holistic understanding of the patient as 'human' is fundamental. In our potentially dangerous times, the instrumental, technical and fragmented ways of seeing knowledge tend to permeate most disciplines, including medicine. This may result in individuals becoming alienated with the 'self' as potential doctors, with the discipline and with patients through the monologic discourse of academia or clinics. This article examines this (in)visible global issue in the specific context of Iran, where bilingual medical education adds another level of complexity in dialogic 'seeing' of self, knowledge and patients. Grounded in Bakhtin's theory of dialogue and critical literacy approach to language and literacy, this article explores the affordances of a pedagogical intervention at an Iranian university. This offers diverse avenues for constructing a holistic medical knowledge in the process of becoming a professional through narrative medicine, clinical scenarios, evidence-based medicine and personal experiences. Selected stories of participants' ontological and epistemological transformations, in their process of ideological becoming, are offered to argue for the urgency of dialogic ways of 'seeing' in potentially dangerous times.