The Culture Wars, nursing, and academic freedom

Abstract

The Culture Wars, nursing, and academic freedom 1 | What did nur sing do in the great culture war s? Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.-Chinua Achebe, 'Anthills of the Savannah' (Achebe, 1988, p. 100). An iconic 1915 propaganda poster shows a little girl asking her guiltridden father, who clearly has not enlisted, "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?". Would today's poster ask every nurse and nursing academic, "What did YOU do in the great Culture Wars?". Culture Wars between social groups for moral and epistemological ascendency pose threats to academia and human progress. In this study we outline some of these threats and their potential impact upon nursing and nurse education. In times of increasing disharmony and division, we seek not to stoke, but to help end the Culture Wars and to reclaim scholarly dialogue. In restating the importance of academic freedom, reason, and evidence, we are acutely aware that the Culture War's trenches show the damage already wrought. The intellectual life of much of the world is a quasi-wasteland, razed by the narcissistic individualism of 'identity politics' that in the late Fisher's (2013) phrase: "is driven by a priest's desire to excommunicate and condemn, an academic-pedant's desire to be the first to be seen to spot a mistake, and a hipster's desire to be one of the in-crowd". 2 | D efen ding ac ademic freedom in nur sing Freedom of thought and expression are cornerstones of the academy and central to nursing scholarship. Nurses have a professional responsibility to raise, discuss, and challenge new and existing ideas (UNESCO, 2017): "without constriction by prescribed doctrines", yet creeping restrictions are a growing concern. Academic freedom has never been absolute and clear limitations rightly exist (Joint Committee on Human Rights, 2018). While academic freedom is largely respected and valued, conflicts with popular social attitudes are not merely hypothetical. Nursing has never been 'apolitical' and many agree that the profession should become more visible and prominent in public discourse and affairs. When "facts become secondary to feeling; expertise and vision to ersatz emotional connection" (Smith, 2016), it is even more important that nurses can freely explore tensions between truth and ideology without fear of reprisal. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that 'political nurses' must hold only prescribed beliefs, and that either 'right wing' or 'left wing' nurses

When nursing education becomes political: Norm‐critical perspectives in a campus‐based clinical learning environment

“…By using norm criticism as a concept in the CBCLE, the department feared that it could be interpreted as the department engaging in a party‐political partnership, which should be seen in the context of an emerging national “culture war.” Hunter (1991) depicts culture wars as a conflict between two polarized political cultures: progressive and orthodox. Darbyshire et al (2020) contextualize culture wars in the nursing profession and nursing education by explaining that nursing has never been apolitical and that academic freedom in nursing education is always imperiled by sociopolitical attitudes. In a similar way, Bell (2021) touched on nursing education's hesitancy regarding being perceived as too political; she argues that nursing education constantly provides a politically soft curriculum that upholds dominant norms such as middle and upperclassism, heteronormativity, whiteness, and other structural oppressions.…”

“…depicts culture wars as a conflict between two polarized political cultures: progressive and orthodox Darbyshire et al (2020). contextualize culture wars in the nursing profession and nursing education by explaining that nursing has never been apolitical and that academic freedom in nursing education is always imperiled by sociopolitical attitudes.…”

The recruitment of women and visible minorities into Canadian police forces: Should we expect further progress?

“…Ng and Lam, 2020). The rise of CT preceded the recent growth in retracted papers, not due to gross flaws or dishonesty but rather to political pressures associated to cancel culture (see Darbyshire et al, 2020; www.retractionwatch.com). Extraordinary criticism may be directed to unpalatable findings on supposed methodological grounds when they are political ones.…”

Addressing polarization in nursing: A call to action

“…The policy adapted by the American Nurses Association (ANA) (Betts, 2020; Myers, 2019) to rescind endorsement of presidential candidates, a policy which had been in existence since 1984, to support individual engagement and the plurality of individual nurses' decisions was met with much debate, angst, and protest among many members. While college campuses have been challenged with balancing freedom of expression and cancel culture, schools of nursing similarly are challenged with creating environments to deal with diverse perspectives and promoting clinical thinking in safe space for students and faculty (Darbyshire et al, 2020).…”