Ethnic stereotypes and the underachievement of UK medical students from ethnic minorities: qualitative study

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1220

Published 18 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1220
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1220

Research

Ethnic stereotypes and the underachievement of UK medical students from ethnic minorities: qualitative study

Katherine Woolf, PhD student¹, Judith Cave, clinical teaching fellow¹, Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary health care², Jane Dacre, professor of medical education¹

¹ Academic Centre for Medical Education, University College London Division of Medical Education, London N19 5LW, ² Open Learning Unit, Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London

Correspondence to: K Woolf k.woolf{at}medsch.ucl.ac.uk

Objective To explore ethnic stereotypes of UK medical studentsin the context of academic underachievement of medical studentsfrom ethnic minorities.

Design Qualitative study using semistructured one to one interviewsand focus groups.

Setting A London medical school.

Participants 27 year 3 medical students and 25 clinical teachers,purposively sampled for ethnicity and sex.

Methods Data were analysed using the theory of stereotype threat(a psychological phenomenon thought to negatively affect theperformance of people from ethnic minorities in educationalcontexts) and the constant comparative method.

Results Participants believed the student-teacher relationshipwas vital for clinical learning. Teachers had strong perceptionsabout "good" clinical students (interactive, keen, respectful),and some described being aggressive towards students whom theyperceived as quiet, unmotivated, and unwilling. Students hadequally strong perceptions about "good" clinical teachers (encouraging,interested, interactive, non-aggressive). Students and teachershad concordant and well developed perceptions of the "typical"Asian clinical medical student who was considered over-relianton books, poor at communicating with patients, too quiet duringclinical teaching sessions, and unmotivated owing to being pushedinto studying medicine by ambitious parents. Stereotypes ofthe "typical" white student were less well developed: autonomous,confident, and outgoing team player. Direct discrimination wasnot reported.

Conclusions Asian clinical medical students may be more likelythan white students to be perceived stereotypically and negatively,which may reduce their learning by jeopardising their relationshipswith teachers. The existence of a negative stereotype abouttheir group also raises the possibility that underperformanceof medical students from ethnic minorities may be partly dueto stereotype threat. It is recommended that clinical teachersbe given opportunities and training to encourage them to getto know their students as individuals and thus foster positiveeducational relationships with them.

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Academic performance of ethnic minorities in medical school: Phyllis Carr and Jonathon Woodson
BMJ 2008 337: a1094. [Extract] [Full Text]

Commentary: An "ethnic minority" medical student: Hugh Ip
BMJ 2008 337: a1240. [Full Text]

Effect of ethnicity on performance in a final objective structured clinical examination: qualitative and quantitative study: Val Wass, Celia Roberts, Ron Hoogenboom, Roger Jones, and Cees Van der Vleuten
BMJ 2003 326: 800-803. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Factors associated with success in medical school: systematic review of the literature: Eamonn Ferguson, David James, and Laura Madeley
BMJ 2002 324: 952-957. [Full Text] [PDF]

Manchester tackles failure rate of Asian students: Luisa Dillner
BMJ 1995 310: 209. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Calvert, M. J, Ross, N. M, Freemantle, N., Xu, Y., Zvauya, R., Parle, J. V (2009). Examination performance of graduate entry medical students compared with mainstream students. JRSM 102: 425-430 [Abstract] [Full text]
Teare, S. R (2008). Teachers, look at how your prejudices affect your teaching. BMJ 337: a1589-a1589 [Full text]
Carr, P., Woodson, J. (2008). Academic performance of ethnic minorities in medical school. BMJ 337: a1094-a1094 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Similar study on ethnic minority doctors would be helpful: Suparna Das
bmj.com, 19 Aug 2008 [Full text]
Haiku Me And You: Hugh Mann
bmj.com, 20 Aug 2008 [Full text]
Ethnic Stereotypes: Sandra R Teare
bmj.com, 20 Aug 2008 [Full text]
Ethnic stereotyping is inevitable in the medical profession: Dr Rahul Potluri
bmj.com, 20 Aug 2008 [Full text]
Stereotyping or another cultural clash!: R Sawant
bmj.com, 21 Aug 2008 [Full text]
No Smoke Without Fire: Dr N.S Bassi
bmj.com, 21 Aug 2008 [Full text]
What is stereotyping?: Hugh Mann
bmj.com, 22 Aug 2008 [Full text]
What is the big deal?: Juhi Sharma
bmj.com, 12 Sep 2008 [Full text]
'Non-whites' are not one homogeneous mass of people: Piyush Durani
bmj.com, 14 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Globalisation has profoundly affected all health care: Ming Chen Hsieh
bmj.com, 15 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Why the paranoia?: Rowan H Harwood
bmj.com, 15 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Healthcare Stereotypes: Andrew L Tambyraja, et al.
bmj.com, 15 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Time to start the debate: kiran sinha
bmj.com, 15 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Compounding Stereotyping of Medical Students: George A Khoury
bmj.com, 16 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Re: 'Non-whites' are not one homogeneous mass of people: John M Davis
bmj.com, 29 Sep 2008 [Full text]
Ethnic differences in medical school attainment require further investigation: Katherine V M Woolf, et al.
bmj.com, 2 Oct 2008 [Full text]
Pervasive negative stereotypes of ethnic minority medical students: What do they suggest?: A Garg
bmj.com, 10 Oct 2008 [Full text]
It does not add up!: George Khoury
bmj.com, 15 Dec 2008 [Full text]