The situational analysis of teaching-learning in clinical education in Iran: a postmodern grounded theory study

BACKGROUND: Clinical teaching-learning is a context-bound phenomenon. One of the problems related to field of medical education research is the lack of sufficient attention to context-appropriate methodologies. The purpose of this qualitative inquiry is to explain and represent teaching-learning in the clinical education of general medicine in Iran using the three types of maps situational, social worlds/arenas, positional, in combination with discourse analysis. METHODS: In this study, the authors used the situational analysis approach as a postmodern version of grounded theory. The data collection was undertaken in three stages. In the first stage, a mini literature review was conducted to highlight a possible gap in applying situational analysis in medical education research and the development of this methodology. In the second stage, the latest and most up-to-date documents of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) of Iran, the general medicine curriculum, and related documents were analyzed. Finally, the remote semi-structured interviews (web-based and telephone) were undertaken in the third stage. Participants in this stage included expert clinical teachers, medical education specialists, and students. In this study, the notes and transcripts were analyzed for the emergence and categorization of sub-themes and themes, represented in three maps. RESULTS: Thirty-one participants were involved in the web-based interviews, while seven participants took part in the telephone interview. Based on this research, the teaching-learning situation in clinical education on general medicine in Iran was represented in three maps; situational, social worlds/arenas, and positional. In addition, the results showed, clinical education of general medicine in Iran in six positions (curriculum; culture, behavior and attitude; management and leadership; environment, space and time; financial; and technology) has serious problems and challenges. Finally, based on the horizontal axis of the positional map, recommendations were provided to develop and support effective clinical teaching. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical learning environment is a complex and multi-layered social environment in which should be considered these numerous social layers, arenas, social worlds, and discourses while developing curricula and teaching. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03577-3.