The forest and the trees: Theorizing a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for medical education

The explicit purpose of medical education is frequently defined as to educate and train physicians who can serve as leaders in providing high-quality, equitable health care for society. Hidden in this explicit purpose is an implicit premise of extraction: those who become physicians are valuable assets who must be separated from society and assimilated into their roles as leaders. Applying Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies as a lens, the authors use Story Cycle methodology to weave personal and literature-based narratives that illuminate, interrogate, and challenge extraction. Finally, they imagine alternative, non-extractive, possibilities for medical education. In doing so, the authors articulate Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for medical education.