Exploring nurses' learning

• Main Author: Lioba Howatson-Jones
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2012-08-01
• Series: European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults
• Subjects: Compelling space; auto/biography; interpretive imagination; dehyphenation
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.rela0040

The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of compelling space for learning. The research presented uses an auto/biographical methodology to explore nurses' learning. Theoretical perspective is drawn from biographical approaches and ideas around development of the self, to examine the nature of people's experience. The argument is advanced, through the narrations of three study participants from a PhD study, that there is a need for nurses to have space to tell their stories of learning and to reconnect with personal experience. The narrations focus upon learning by mistake, developing an interpretive imagination and using biography in teaching and learning and have something to contribute to the development of spaces of learning. This is developed further by considering how biographical method and reflexive responses offer opportunity to find the personal voice and make spaces more compelling and integrative as a different form of pedagogy for nurse education.