Abstract
This chapter discusses aspects of my doctoral work, which critically explored the ‘silences’ or taken-for-granted assumptions embedded within pelvic teaching utilizing Gynaechological Teaching Associates (GTA). Throughout this chapter, I draw upon my own storied reflections (alongside the voices of my participants) of working as a GTA to give a distinctive, often-unarticulated voice to the practice/performance of a GTA – a voice that questions the (re)positioning of women through a language that speaks us into being, drawing attention to how we come to be known in particular ways as a consequence. I raise up to question – What does it mean to be/become a practice(d) body in pelvic teaching from the perspective of GTAs? Furthermore, what are the possible consequences for (the practice of) GTAs whose bodies operate as sites where medical students’ practice is practiced upon, and from where practice(d) knowledge is (re)generated through (not) ‘talking’ the body? Such questioning, informed by the work of Butler, Foucault, and (post-)critical feminist theories, invites us to consider how notions of professional(ization), as taken up within medical education, exist and participate in the creation of other bodies – caught-up in a normative feedback loop where ‘one’s’ practices (re)create the very body one sets out to find. The chapter discusses how medical students working with/on me and other GTAs, as both model and ‘teacher/text’, endeavoured to accomplish the goal of ‘being’ a professional in that space, which often meant operating from a place of (supposed) disembodiment while simultaneously engaging intimately with my/our bodies.
Now you will notice one of the things they emphasized in the pelvic teaching video was the use of language. This is a drape, not a sheet. This is an examining table, not a bed. And we try to exclude the use of the word ‘feel’ in terms of ourselves. I am not going to feel Drew – I am going to assess her, check her, envision, palpate, examine. Just because ‘feel’ is one of those words that can be deemed rather sexual in [this] context. We also use what we term the ‘non-business’ side of the hand, as opposed to the palms (Gynecological Teaching Associate, speaking to medical students – pelvic teaching module)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ackerson, K., Pohl, J., & Low, L. K. (2008). Personal influencing factors associated with pap smear testing and cervical cancer. Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice, 9(1), 50–60. doi:10.1177/1527154408318097.
Behar, R. (1995). Introduction: Out of exile. In R. Behar & D. Gordon (Eds.), Women writing culture (pp. 1–32). Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Bochner, A. (1997). It’s about time: Narrative and the divided self. Qualitative Inquiry, 3(4), 418–438. doi:10.1177/107780049700300404.
Bratich, J. Z., Packer, J., & McCarthy, C. (2003). Foucault, cultural studies, and governmentality. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Brooks, M. (2006). Man-to-man: A body talk between male friends. Qualitative Inquiry, 12, 185–207. doi:10.1177/1077800405282796.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of gender. London: Routledge.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter – On the discursive limits of ‘sex’. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.
Cheek, J. (2004). At the margins? Discourse analysis and qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 1140–1150. doi:10.1177/1049732304266820.
Coldicott, Y., Pope, C., & Roberts, C. (2003). The ethics of intimate examinations – Teaching tomorrow’s doctors. BMJ, 326, 97–101. doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7380.97.
Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2005). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 1–32). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Ellingson, L. L. (2006). Embodied knowledge: Writing researchers’ bodies into qualitative health research. Qualitative Health Research, 16(2), 298–310. doi:10.1177/1049732305281944.
Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press.
Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. P. (2006). Analyzing analytic autoethnography: An autopsy. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 429–449. doi:10.1177/0891241606287395.
Foucault, M. (1980). In C. Gordon (Ed.), Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977. United States: Random House.
Gannon, S. (2006). The (Im)Possibilities of writing the self-writing: French poststructural theory and autoethnography. Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies, 6(4), 474–495. doi:10.1177/1532708605285734.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Grosz, E. A. (1994). Volatile bodies: Toward a corporeal feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hall, J. C. (2012). ‘Okay so remember, this is a drape – Not a sheet’: A critical autoethnography of (per)forming the practice(d) body of a Gynaecological Teaching Associate. Electronic thesis and dissertation repository, University of Western Ontario.
Hendrickx, K., De Winter, B., Wyndaele, J. J., Tjalma, W. A. A., Debaene, L., Selleslags, B., et al. (2006). Intimate examination teaching with volunteers: Implementation and assessment at the University of Antwerp. Patient Education and Counseling, 63, 47–54. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2005.08.009.
Heys, C. J. (2006). Foucault goes to Weight Watchers. Hypatia, 21(2), 126–149. doi:10.1353/hyp.2006.0009.
Hopwood, N., Abrandt Dahlgren, M., & Siwe, K. (2014). Developing professional responsibility in medicine: A sociomaterial curriculum. In T. Fenwick & M. Nerland (Eds.), Reconceptualising professional learning: sociomaterial knowledges, practices, and responsibilities (pp. 171–183). London: Routledge.
Jones, S. H. (2005). Autoethnography: Making the personal political. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 763–792). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Kapsalis, T. (1997). Public privates: Performing gynecology from both ends of the speculum. United States: Duke University Press.
Kelly, E. (1998). Teaching doctors sensitivity on the most sensitive of exams. The New York Time online. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/02/science/teaching-doctors-sensitivity-on-the-most-sensitive-of-exams.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Kotthoff, H., & Wodak, R. (Eds.). (1997). Communicating gender in context. The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Lane, C., & Rollnick, S. (2007). The use of simulated patients and role-play in communication skills training: A review of the literature to August 2005. Patient Education and Counseling, 67, 13–20. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2007.02.011.
Lippman, A. (1999). Choice as a risk to women’s health. Health, Risk & Society, 1(3), 281–291. doi:10.1080/13698579908406317.
O’Brien, B., Mill, J., & Wilson, T. (2009). Cervical screening in Canadian First Nation Cree women. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 20(1), 83–92. doi:10.1177/1043659608322418.
Petersen, A., & Lupton, D. (1996). The new public health: Discourses, knowledges, strategies. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Pickard, S., Barasiter, P., Rymer, J., & Piper, J. (2003). Can gynecology teaching associates provide high quality effective training for medical students in the United Kingdom? Comparative study. BMJ, 327, 1389–1392. doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7428.1389.
Richards, R. (2008). Writing the othered self: Autoethnography and the problem of objectification in writing about illness and disability. Qualitative Health Research, 18(12), 1717–1728. doi:10.1177/1049732308325866.
Robertson, K., Hegarty, K., O’Connor, V., & Gunn, J. (2003). Women teaching women’s health: Issues in the establishment of a clinical teaching associate program for the well woman check. Women & Health, 34(4), 49–65. doi:10.1300/J013v37n04_05.
Sawicki, J. (1991). Disciplining Foucault: Feminism, power and the body. New York: Routledge.
Schatzki, T. R. (2012). A primer on practices. In J. Higgs, R. Barnett, S. Billett, M. Hutchings, & F. Trede (Eds.), Practice-based education: Perspectives and strategies (pp. 13–26). Rotterdam: Sense.
Seehusen, D. A., Johnson, D. R., Earwood, J. S., Sethuraman, S. N., Cornali, J., Gillespie, K., … Lanham, J. (2006). Improving women’s experience during speculum examinations at routine gynecological visits: Randomized clinical trial. BMJ, 1–3. doi:10.1136/bmj.38888.588519.55.
Sered, S., & Norton-Hawk, M. (2008). Disrupted lives, fragmented care: Illness experiences of criminalized women. Women and Health, 48(1), 43–61. doi:10.1080/03630240802131999.
Shildrick, M. (1997). Leaky bodies and boundaries: Feminism, postmodernism and (bio)ethics. London: Routledge.
Shotter, J. (2011). Embodiment, abduction, and expressive movement: A new realm of inquiry? Theory & Psychology, 21(4), 439–456.
Siwe, K., Wijma, B., & Berterö, C. (2006). ‘A stronger and clearer perception of self’: Women’s experience of being professional patients in teaching the pelvic examination: A qualitative study. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 113, 890–895. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2006.01019.x.
Tiggemann, M., & Lewis, C. (2004). Attitudes toward women’s body hair: Relationship with disgust sensitivity. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 381–387. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00155.x.
Ubel, P. A., Jepson, C., & Silver-Isenstadt, A. (2003). Don’t ask, don’t tell: A change in medical students’ attitudes after obstetrics/gynecology clerkships toward seeking consent for pelvic examinations on an anesthetized patient. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 188(2), 575–579. doi:10.1067/mob.2003.85.
Underman, K. (2011). ‘It’s the knowledge that puts you in control’ – The embodied labor of Gynecological Educators. Gender & Society, 25(4), 431–450. doi:10.1177/0891243211415847.
van Til, L., MacQuarrie, C., & Herbert, R. (2003). Understanding the barriers to cervical screening among older women. Qualitative Health Research, 13, 1116–1129. doi:10.1177/1049732303255975.
Yanikkerem, E., Özdemir, M., Bingol, H., Tater, A., & Karadeniz, G. (2009). Women’s attitudes and expectations regarding gynaecological examination. Midwifery, 25(5), 500–508. doi:10.1016/j.midw.2007.08.006.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hall, J. (2015). (Per)forming the Practice(d) Body: Gynecological Teaching Associates in Medical Education. In: Green, B., Hopwood, N. (eds) The Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00140-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00140-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00139-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00140-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)