The use of arts and humanities as an educational approach to addressing anti-Indigenous racism and discrimination in health systems: a scoping review

Arts and humanities have been used for a variety of purposes in health professions education, from mastering skills to social advocacy. Little is known about how this transformative potential is harnessed within Indigenous-focused health curricula. As such, this study aimed to investigate the application of arts and humanities within Indigenous-specific educational programming in health professions. A scoping review was conducted to identify how and why arts and humanities are used as learning approaches within Indigenous-specific educational programming in health systems. A search strategy involving five databases was applied, with gray literature included through hand-searching of Indigenous journals and citations. In total, 6148 records were identified and screened; full text was assessed for 34 records; 14 records were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria for final review. The majority of educational opportunities used literature as the arts/humanities pedagogical tool, with all but one study broadly incorporating reflection. Fostering personal insight was the most frequently identified learning objective. One course identified each of perspective-taking and social advocacy as learning objectives. Only two records linked the theoretical orientation to Indigenous ways of knowing, with most grounding their choice in transformative learning theory or culturally informed theories. The arts and humanities are emerging within health professions education as valuable pedagogical tools for fostering personal insight, but this promising step still largely overlooks their potential for driving social advocacy. These findings can inform efforts to integrate and evaluate arts and humanities pedagogy in health professional programs on Indigenous Peoples experiences with historical and on-going colonialism.