Adopting narrative pedagogy to improve the student learning experience in a regional Australian university

Abstract

A growing body of work in the literature describes and explains narrative pedagogy within nursing and midwifery programs. This paper continues the conversation by explaining, with examples, how narrative pedagogy has been interpreted and applied within a new nursing faculty in Australia. The aims of our nursing and midwifery programs are to provide students with a clear professional identity and to prepare them for contemporary Australian nursing practice. As part of these aims, we want students to develop their imaginations and to consciously examine, and challenge, nursing and healthcare paradigms and practices such as the enduring illness model of healthcare and the emphasis on technique-oriented care. Members of our teaching team, working together and individually, have used narrative pedagogy in a variety of ways, developing novel teaching and learning activities for use in real time classroom settings as well as online to provide a regionally and globally relevant educational experience.

La narrativa como estrategia didáctica para una aproximación al proceso de la muerte

“…Cuidar con una visión de amplio espectro significa comprender y respetar las respuestas dispersas, y a veces dispares, que presentan las personas atendidas; en este sentido, la intervención enfermera se dirige a cubrir las necesidades específicas de las personas en cada etapa facilitando el tránsito por el duelo, desde el respeto a la autonomía [22] . El relato pedagógico permite sensibilizar a los estudiantes de la importancia de la comunicación terapéutica y del enfoque integral centrado en la persona, al ilustrar la complejidad de los cuidados [24] .…”

“…Estos procesos cognitivos se producen gracias a que la pedagogía narrativa pone en el centro el pensamiento colectivo, el diálogo para la interpretación de las experiencias desde múltiples perspectivas en la práctica enfermera, con la finalidad de descubrir nuevos significados, llegar a consensos y conclusiones [25] . La narrativa, como el aprendizaje afectivo, puede mejorar la adquisición y aplicación que facilita el desarrollo de significado compartido entre los estudiantes y, por tanto puede aumentar la competencia del conocimiento y de la praxis [24] .…”

Enabling Narrative Pedagogy: Listening in Nursing Education

“…In content-laden curricula that are common in nursing [14], it is often difficult for teachers to create time for discussions that engage students in listening to and considering perspectives different than their own and for sharing their thinking in ways that fosters knowing and connecting. Fostering such interpretive practices, however, can help students consider themselves as nurses, and those for whom they provide care in new ways [28].…”

“…When teachers and students make connections through a learning experience, they invite a sharing of scholarly inquiry and an opportunity to interpret their experiences of patient care from multiple shared perspectives [13,14]. The public sharing and interpretation of those experiences creates a communal experience between students and teachers, which is widely supported in the literature as an educational practice [2,15,16].…”

The shaping of midwifery education in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

“…Studies exploring narrative pedagogical approaches, have found that when a learning environment fosters interpretation of narratives, a space is created for dialogue, reflection and thinking about subject matter in a different way from the thinking which might happen in a lecture environment (Diekelmann & Diekelmann, 2000;Gilkison, 2011;McAllister et al, 2009;McGibbon & McPherson, 2006;Vandermause & Townsend, 2010). Gilkison (2011) found when midwifery teachers and students jointly shared, discussed and interpreted a narrative, that learning about the art of midwifery practice was enhanced.…”