Most information in medical education is framed in binary sex or gender categories (that is, information is categorized by male/female or men/women). The current generation of medical trainees grew up in a culture where expansiveness of gender identity and sexual orientation is more normalized than it was in the past. Because of this demographic shift, students are aware that binary sex/gender categories are limiting framings that exclude subsets of the population. This awareness leads to vocal student feedback that faculty should modify their teaching to be more inclusive. However, faculty often struggle to understand this feedback or how to respond to it.

The purpose of this workshop is to help educator faculty understand the rationale and motivations for such student feedback and to provide practical skills for reframing information. The facilitators will illustrate how the changing demographics of identity and acceptance underlie a true generational shift in perspective which mandates rethinking how sex- and gender-based information is framed in medical education. The presenters will illustrate how the traditional way that information is framed holds exclusionary and inaccurate assumptions that many faculty do not recognize yet are obvious to students. The presenters will provide practical ways to recognize such patterns in one’s own teaching and to adjust language to be more inclusive and accurate. Workshop participants will then work in small groups through a set of common teaching scenario examples to explore the nuances of this topic.

Agenda & Methods

• Translating the student perspective (15 minutes, lecture)
  Exploration of how the changing cultural perspectives on sex and gender drive the disconnect between student and faculty viewpoints. Definition and explanation of foundational concepts and terminology pertaining to sex/gender will be provided.
• Pulling off the blinders (15 min, interactive lecture)
  Exploration of three contexts in which medical educators regularly use sex and gender (discussions of biological traits, descriptions of groups of people, and descriptions of individual people) and how traditional framings in these contexts often reinforce limiting binaries. Practical approaches for ensuring inclusivity while teaching will be described for each context.
• Practice at the growth edge (45 min, small groups with facilitator guidance)
  Participants will work in groups of 5-8. They will be provided three common medical teaching scenarios and will work together to decide how to approach each scenario with inclusive framing around sex and gender. Scenarios will be appropriate for both basic science and clinician educators.
• Lessons learned and challenges (15 min, large group discussion)
  Groups will reconvene to describe their solutions and discuss challenges encountered during the exercise. Additional tools for continuing education will be shared.