Grant: Doctoral Research Award - PA: Aboriginal Research Methodologies

Stereotypes create a significant barrier for Indigenous people when they interact with Canada's healthcare system. In recent years, the nursing and medical professions have been examining not only the role they play in perpetuating such discrimination but also what can be done to make real and effective changes. One way to address racism is through education. The Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, in partnership with the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, have developed guidelines for teaching about Indigenous health to physicians in training, and these are currently being implemented in Canada's medical schools. Including discussions about racism in the classroom presents challenges for the instructor. Students may be reluctant to engage in this topic or exhibit strong emotional responses. Although researchers in other fields, such as teacher education, have been studying this phenomenon, very little is known about medical school instructors' experiences of teaching about racism's impacts on Indigenous people. For the last two years, the medical school at the University of Manitoba has been including racism as a central topic in its Indigenous Health course. My research study will involve interviewing the instructors of this course to understand their experience of teaching medical students about the racism. In doing this research, I hope to learn more about the challenges these instructors face, as well as the supports that help them in their work. As a researcher who is of both Cree and European ancestry, I aim to incorporate both points of view in my research project. Using this 'two-eyed seeing' approach, the traditions of Cree storytelling as well as mainstream research methods will help me to gain a multifaceted understanding of the instructors' interviews. The results of my study may be useful for other Canadian medical schools to address the challenges of teaching about racism and Indigenous people.