Health inequities are well-documented and persistent. To address this issue, medical schools have revised their curricula to reflect a commitment to equity. What is less known is how students experience equity-oriented instruction. This qualitative case study examines how students perceive and interpret equity-oriented instruction within the pre-clinical curriculum at the Larner College of Medicine. 

Three data sources were analyzed using a two-phase qualitative analysis: Course evaluation comments collected between 2020 and 2024, institutional documents related to curriculum and faculty development, and semi-structured interviews with students underrepresented in medicine (URIM; n = 7). Data were analyzed using deductive and inductive thematic coding. The research design and analysis were informed by Critical Race Theory and Transformative Learning Theory.

Four key findings emerged from the coded datasets: 1. Students described equity-informed content as most impactful when it was integrated with biomedical content. 2. While students praised institutional efforts to address equity, they also noted that equity was not addressed evenly across courses and instructors, which they perceived as uneven follow-through. 3. Belonging for URIM students was described in practical terms. It was shaped by how conversations unfolded in classrooms and by how peers interacted with them. 4. Professional identity formation was influenced by equity-focused instruction, including early thoughts about their future practice of medicine. 

Centering student perspectives is important for understanding how equity-oriented instruction is enacted and received within medical education. The thematic results of this study highlight patterns in how stated commitments to equity were experienced in practice. In some cases, alignment was evident; in others, gaps were noted. The implications are relevant when considering how to improve learning environments, curricula, and faculty development in ways that support professional identity formation and engage with structural sources of health inequity.