ABSTRACT
UK medical schools enjoy a good deal of latitude over curriculum content and process while monitored for quality by the General Medical Council. Consensus statements were available for inclusion of medical ethics and communication, providing curriculum blueprints. The curriculum set out a fundamental humanistic aim: to educate for democratic habits. Where basic and applied sciences, clinical skills and work-based placements formed the core curriculum and first stimulus, the medical humanities and ethics provided the second stimulus through which the core learning could be reconceptualized or creatively progressed, as a “thinking otherwise”. Informing curriculum planning, a developing evidence base suggested permeating value for the medical humanities in educating for democratic values and practices. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) provided an indispensable model in focusing ideas about curriculum design and, during implementation, developing practice innovations. CHAT proves to be an approach that embraces and celebrates opportunism and serendipity as much as rational design.
