Mapping a surgeon's becoming with Deleuze

Abstract

The process of 'becoming' shapes professionals' capability, confidence and identity. In contrast to notions of rugged individuals who achieve definitive status as experts, 'becoming' is a continuous emergent condition. It is often a process of struggle, and is always interminably linked to its environs and relationships. 'Becoming' is a way of understanding the tensions of everyday practice and knowledge of professionals. In this paper, we explore the notion of 'becoming' from the perspective of surgeons. We suggest that 'becoming', as theorised by Deleuze, offers a more nuanced understanding than is often represented using conventional vocabularies of competence, error, quality and improvement. We develop this conception by drawing from our Deleuze-inspired study of mapping experience in surgery. We argue for Deleuzian mapping as a method to research health professionals' practice and experience, and suggest the utility of this approach as a pedagogical tool for medical education.

Exploring the Salutogenic University: Searching for the Triple Point for the Becoming-Caring-Teacher Through Collaborative Cartography

“…But more than this, we are interested in the conception of 'becoming-caring-teacher in the salutogenic university' (Kinchin, 2019). Borrowing from Cristancho and Fenwick (2015), we are interested in investigating the complexities of professional practice in which 'knowing' is inseparable from the activity and materials of practice, and where 'becoming' has no endpoint:…”

“…The observations, questions, and comments that are provoked by each memory-story are crucial to the process of opening these texts to alternative readings and subsequent rewritings (p. 184). In their analysis of the professional development of surgeons, Cristancho and Fenwick (2015) focused on three elements of professional becoming, looking for the ways in which different factors interact and develop. We are attempting to go a stage further here in our analysis, exploring the idea that under certain conditions the three lines will coalesce and become temporarily indistinguishable -forming a 'triple point' (Kinchin, 2019).…”

A diffractive exploration of affect: Learning, research and teaching in obstetrics

“…Each image becomes 'an active material agent' (Stender Peterson 2014, 43), an expanded perspective rather than drawings reduced to an end-product of the discourse. A study with surgeons in the United Kingdom who volunteered to draw (postoperatively) about their surgery experiences, showed the value of this pedagogical tool to understand their becoming, and recommended it for medical education (Cristancho and Fenwick 2015).…”