Subjectification in Health Professions Education: Why we should look beyond the idea of professional identity formation

This chapter describes how the concept of ‘subjectification’ meaningfully adds to the discussion about the purposes of health professions education. Health professions education as a field is historically and increasingly oriented towards the general purpose of learning, a development coined by educationalist Biesta as learnification: the redefinition of all things educational in terms of learning. A conceptual area within health professions education where ‘learnification’ becomes visible is that of Professional Identity Formation. Starting from the three domains of educational purpose suggested by Biesta (qualification, socialisation, and subjectification), we suggest that Professional Identity Formation is foremostly a domain of socialisation. We argue that health professions education should look beyond the idea of identity formation as socialisation towards the notion of subjectification. We unpack that notion by juxtaposing it to Professional Identity Formation at three key points to show how the latter could meaningfully add to thinking and practice in health professions education. We conclude that medical educators should be conscious of, often implicit, educational theory in health professions education discourse and provide suggestions on how subjectification could bring about new educational conversations about the formation of future healthcare professionals.