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Introduction: The awarding gap between White and Black students in UK health curricula is well established. Critical race theory (CRT) is a lens to deconstruct pedagogic practice and consider the intersectionality of Black student lived experience to provide a realist critique of the phenomenon of Whiteness in higher education and the impact this has on Black attainment. Using one UK pharmacy programme as a case study, this paper aims to explore Black lived experience as a means of problematising and disrupting structural oppressions. Methods: Sixteen Black students from one UK pharmacy degree programme were purposively recruited to the study. Love and breakup letter methodology (LBM) was used to facilitate sharing experiences of intersectionality in relation to their undergraduate education, with data thematically analysed through the lens of CRT. Results: Two meta‐themes (identity and inclusion; and cultural capital) and four subthemes (social capital; access; family expectations; and help‐seeking) were identified. The intersectionality of Black students was articulated as not possessing the social capital and the 'language' to succeed within the White structures of the curriculum. The conflict of capital and the absence of Black culture gave rise to confined help‐seeking behaviours. Whilst Black students experienced equality of access to the curriculum, an absence of rights to legitimate involvement (inclusion) worked to diminish participation in the curriculum. Discussion: This is the first study to consider the intersectionality of Black pharmacy students in relation to academic awarding gaps and has found that oppressive educational structures marginalise and other Black experience. Black students experience the curriculum as a place where their social and cultural capital is undervalued, and as a White space where they lack the artefacts to succeed, leading to peripheral participation and detachment. The approach used in this study can be adopted across medical and health education as a means to problematise racial inequality through the exemplar of White:Black awarding gaps. In this article, @AndrewMawdsley1 et al. use critical race theory as a lens to understand Black student intersectionality and its role in awarding gap deficits [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United Kingdom (UK) pharmacy curricula have previously been shown to be hetero- and cis-normative. A possible reason may be that educators hold binary beliefs and attitudes toward sexuality and gender norms, and that these are manifest in teaching practice and discourse. The purpose of this study is to investigate these attitudes and beliefs. A cross-sectional survey using the 16-item heteronormative attitudes and beliefs scale (HABS) was distributed to educators at UK universities teaching on undergraduate Master of Pharmacy degree programs, with 123 surveys returned. Total HABS scores and subscales measuring normative beliefs (NB) and essential sex and gender (ESG) were calculated with non-parametric statistics comparing scores based on demographic and contextual characteristics of the sample. The mean total HABS score was 40.06, for NB it was 16.46 and ESG it was 23.60 indicating moderate-low normative beliefs and attitudes. Two demographic categories reached statistical significance: gender (p =.049 total HABS score) and sexuality (p = <.001 total HABS score, p =.008NB subscore and p = <.001 ESG subscore) (p <.05) indicating that female and queer identifying educators have significantly lower heteronormative attitudes and beliefs. Findings indicate that UK pharmacy educators do not hold normative values and beliefs; curricula are influenced by the normative structures within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Academic resilience is seen as a positive attribute that supports academic attainment and protects against attrition and burnout. Studies have reported that UK pharmacy students have lower academic resilience and wellbeing than the general UK student population but the reasons for this have not been established. This study pilots the use of a novel methodology, love and break-up letter methodology (LBM), to explore these issues focusing on the lived experience of pharmacy students. Method: Final year undergraduate pharmacy study were purposely recruited to the study. Employing LBM, each participant was invited to write reflective love and break-up letters to their academic resilience in higher education during a focus group. Letters and transcripts of subsequent focus group discussion on the feelings and ideas expressed in the letters were thematically analysed. Results: Three meta-themes were identified within the data; the curriculum as gas lighting; the curriculum as abusive; and the curriculum as controlling. Students described how the curriculum diminishes academic resilience by working against their sense of agency and self-esteem. A constant threat of failure emerged as defining the student lived experience; students felt controlled by a curriculum with negative impacts on wellbeing and perseverance. Discussion: This is the first study to use LBM to explore academic resilience in UK pharmacy students. The results provide evidence that some students view the pharmacy curriculum as a source of relentless adversity that is responsible for promoting a hidden negative connection between students and their education. Further study is required to determine if the results can be generalised across the UK pharmacy student body to explain why UK pharmacy students have lower academic resilience than other UK university students and the steps needed to improve academic resilience in UK pharmacy students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]