Historicizing health professions education research: history as a strategic analytic resource.

Abstract

Background: Health professions education researchers have long emphasized evaluation, reform, and innovation, yet have paid comparatively little attention to the historical conditions under which educational practices, institutions, and forms of knowledge emerge and persist. Recurrent calls to historicize academic medicine signal recognition of this gap, but historical inquiry remains unevenly integrated into mainstream health professions education research (HPER).

Purpose: This paper argues that historical research constitutes a distinct and valuable analytic approach for understanding contemporary challenges in health professions education. It further argues that historical inquiry can function as a strategic resource, informing institutional strategy, governance, and responses to disruption.

Approach: Drawing on historiographic traditions attentive to context, power, and change, including genealogy and the history of the present, this article attempts to clarify what historical inquiry entails in health professions education research. It synthesizes prior calls for historical engagement, outlines key methodological features, and illustrates what historical analysis makes visible that present-focused qualitative or evaluative approaches often obscure.

Key insights and conclusion: Historical analysis offers a valuable and complementary lens for HPER scholars. While historians have examined the institutions and people of health professions education, relatively little work has addressed the granular domain of HPER itself, leaving significant opportunities for future scholarship. As both an analytic and strategic resource, historical inquiry strengthens HPER's capacity for institutional learning, more grounded decision making, and future-oriented change. The argument is illustrated through an institutional case in which historical analysis informed a major self-study and strategic review.