In clinical professions, practitioners rely on senior-level professionals who lead teams and mentor new and veteran practitioners. The teaching profession however, currently stands at the junction between a blue-collar trade and a knowledge-based clinical profession. We are in a transition point between a reality in which each teacher operates separately, and a situation in which expertise in teaching develops collaboratively from within, based on knowhow and practice.

Master teachers are key to the success of this process. Their teacher colleagues consult with them on professional questions and they lead their communities of practice and learning. Therefore when they are given a significant position, the conditions for clinical teaching to flourish increase