Valuing Curriculum Evaluation as Scholarship: A Process of Developing a Community of Scholars (Valoriser l’évaluation de programmes d’études comme forme de scholarship : un processus de création d’une communauté de chercheuses)

Curriculum evaluation is an essential and complex activity intended to foster understanding of how teaching-learning practices serve to meet educational goals. This position paper provides a retrospective from the authors\u27 lived experience of one multi-institutional collaborative nursing programs\u27 history of curriculum evaluation and scholarship growth over twenty-five years. Key themes include an overview of collaborative curriculum evaluation underpinned by three philosophical perspectives, the influence of accreditation and re-mandated post-secondary institutions on scholarship development, an affirmation of curriculum evaluation as a form of knowledge development as supported by Boyer’s model of scholarship, and the development of scholarship expertise across collaborative partners through a focus on curriculum evaluation. Examples of curriculum evaluation practices are integrated throughout the paper. This retrospective review supports the contention that collaborative curriculum evaluation provides a strong foundation upon which to develop nursing education scholarship. Résumé L’évaluation de programmes d’études est une activité cruciale et complexe visant à favoriser la compréhension du rôle des approches d’enseignement/apprentissage dans l’atteinte des visées de formation. Notre énoncé de position présente une rétrospective de l’expérience vécue par les auteures, soit 25 années de collaboration inter-établissements dans l’évaluation de programmes d’études et le développement de professeurs-chercheurs. Les principaux thèmes abordés comprennent un aperçu de l’évaluation collaborative des programmes d’études fondée sur trois perspectives philosophiques, l’influence de l’agrément sur le nouveau mandat des établissements postsecondaires vers le développement de la mission professorale, l’affirmation que l’évaluation de programmes d’études constitue une forme d’avancée des connaissances, comme le soutient le modèle de scholarship de Boyer, et le développement d’une expertise de scholarship parmi les partenaires de l’évaluation des programmes d’études. Cet énoncé comprend des exemples de pratiques d’évaluation de programmes d’études. Cette rétrospective appuie la théorie selon laquelle l’évaluation collaborative des programmes d’études fournit des bases solides au développement du scholarship en sciences infirmières

It takes a village: rural nursing preceptorships as cultural mediation

In-depth interviews with five nursing students and five rural preceptors in the southern interior region of British Columbia were used to develop an ethnographically informed, multi-dimensional account of the nature and educational value of rural hospital-based preceptorships. Rather than a straightforward teacher-student or mentor-novice relationship, the reciprocity between preceptor and student was situated within a process of cultural mediation in which relationships with the healthcare team, community members, and place itself all played important roles. Specific issues or dimensions highlighted in this study included: the role of the rural preceptor as cultural mediator; the significance of the healthcare team in rural preceptorships; the unique importance of rural relational continuity for student learning and healthcare practices; the challenges of living the professional ethic of confidentiality in a rural context; and the interplay between independence and dependence in rural nursing practice, given the distribution of resources within and beyond the rural context. The preceptorship experience provided students with diverse learning opportunities, including learning to expect and prepare for the unexpected, that facilitated the development of technical skills and clinical decision-making skills. Recommendations are outlined for the redesign of rural practice-education in order to maximize educational opportunities and benefits and to develop a scholarship of place-based engagement in nursing education

Integrating Global Citizenship through Local Teaching Practices

As university and nursing programs place more emphasis on global perspectives in their strategic plans and goals, it is frequently unclear how these perspectives are integrated into curricula and pedagogical practices. With globalization processes impacting health and education throughout the world, it is timely to understand the current context and expertise in order to move ahead to promote the development of professional nurses as global citizens. This interpretive descriptive study explored the characteristics and qualities of global citizenship and global health from the perspective of 12 expert informant nursing education leaders from undergraduate nursing programs within Canada. The study also examined curricular and pedagogical directions that would promote the integration of global citizenship education within nursing programs. In addition to the interviews, field notes and reflective journaling were also used in data gathering. The findings are presented as qualitative description and were analyzed using the interpretive description method