Faculty shape more than what students learn in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program. They shape how students understand the profession, how they see themselves in it, and how they prepare to serve patients.

Representation matters in physical therapy education. For students from racially and ethnically minoritized backgrounds, seeing faculty who understand parts of their lived experience can support belonging. For all students, diverse faculty voices can deepen conversations about healthcare equity, patient care, and professional responsibility.

A study by Keshrie Naidoo, Ndidiamaka D. Matthews, and Tiffany N. Adams examines what it means to be a racially and ethnically minoritized female faculty member teaching in a Doctor of Physical Therapy programs. The article highlights the barriers these faculty face, the labor they carry, and the institutional changes needed to support and retain them.

What the Study Examined

The researchers used a collaborative autoethnographic approach, a qualitative method that examines shared experience through personal narratives, reflection, and analysis. In this study, the three authors served as researchers and participants. Each wrote about her experience as a DPT educator, reflected with the others through collective debriefs, and analyzed the narratives for shared themes.

The study focused on the period before and after the events of 2020, including the COVID-19 pandemic and national unrest related to police brutality against Black Americans. These events intensified conversations about racism, inequity, and the role of health professions education in preparing clinicians to respond to social factors that affect health.

The authors found that racially and ethnically minoritized female faculty often work within systems that ask them to help advance equity while offering limited support for the toll of that work. Their findings produced three central themes: “Outsiders Within,” “In the Hot Seat,” and “Changing the Rules of the Game.”

Feeling Like “Outsiders Within”

The first theme, “Outsiders Within,” describes belonging to academic institutions while not always receiving the same access, validation, respect, or opportunities as white colleagues.

The authors described feeling that their work was sometimes undervalued or narrowly defined through the lens of race and identity. They also described tokenism, isolation, and pressure to carry diversity-related responsibilities even when their expertise extended beyond that work.

This matters for any DPT program because faculty success connects to student success. When faculty members feel excluded or unsupported, institutions risk losing educators whose teaching, mentoring, scholarship, and lived experience help prepare students for an inclusive physical therapy career.

Carrying the Weight of Equity Work

The second theme, “In the Hot Seat,” captures the pressure placed on racially and ethnically minoritized female faculty to lead diversity, equity, inclusion, and healthcare equity efforts with urgency.

After 2020, many institutions placed a greater emphasis on equity. The authors recognized the importance of that moment, but they also described resistance. Students and colleagues sometimes questioned the relevance of equity-focused content, resisted discussions of racism and social determinants of health, or remained silent when allyship was needed.

For faculty teaching future physical therapists, this work is part of clinical preparation. Physical therapists serve people whose health is shaped by access, environment, bias, disability, income, race, language, and other factors. Teaching students to recognize those realities helps strengthen patient-centered care.

The study highlighted that this responsibility should not fall primarily on minoritized faculty. Institutions need shared accountability so that healthcare equity is embedded across the curriculum and supported by the full academic community.

Changing the Rules

The third theme, “Changing the Rules of the Game,” reflects how the authors navigated academic systems with shifting expectations. They described pursuing advanced credentials, limiting how much of their identity they shared at work, and learning how to preserve their well-being.

Over time, they recognized that working harder or seeking more validation did not fix the structural issues they faced. The study points to the need for institutions to change policies and cultures, not just ask individual faculty members to adapt.

The authors recommend several institutional strategies: make equity work a shared responsibility; standardize workload, service, salary, and promotion expectations; create clearer systems for reporting bias; provide mentoring and community for minoritized faculty; compensate diversity-related labor through course release or stipends; and use student evaluations with caution because they can reflect racial and gender bias.

Why This Matters for Physical Therapy Education

The outcome of this study is a clearer understanding of what institutions must do to support racially and ethnically minoritized faculty in health science programs. Recruitment alone is not enough. Institutions must also build environments where faculty can belong, advance, teach, mentor, and lead without disproportionate burdens.

A strong DPT education depends on faculty who bring different perspectives, challenge assumptions, and prepare students to serve diverse communities. Supporting those faculty strengthens the learning environment and the profession.

About the MGBU Author

Dr. Keshrie Naidoo is a chair and associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Mass General Brigham University and one of the study’s authors. Her work contributes to important conversations about faculty belonging, healthcare equity, and Doctor of Physical Therapy education.