Expanding the Repertoire of Teaching and Learning Strategies for Future Nurse Educators: Introducing Interpretive Pedagogies in an Online Graduate Nurse Education Course

SINCE INTERPRETIVE PEDAGOGY WAS INTRODUCED TO OUR FACULTY DURING A WORKSHOP WITH NANCY DIEKELMANN, "LEAVING SAFE HARBORS: re-forming nursing education and the new Pedagogies," faculty have struggled with this teaching-learning method, finding it foreign and difficult to incorporate into a teaching repertoire entrenched with behaviorist traditions. one curriculum change that resulted from the workshop was the development of a nurse educator course, "nursing education Pedagogies," which introduces interpretive pedagogies to new teachers. the inefficiency of conventional pedagogy for all current health care education is acknowledged in many different disciplines and supported by the proponents of constructivist theory (Packer & Goicoechea, 2000). Constructivists assert that knowledge and truth are based on beliefs and experience in situations (Cobb & Bowers, 1999), a product of individual cognition (simpson, 2002) and situated in contexts (Bredo, 2006). First described in 1988, interpretive pedagogy has been implemented with feminist studies, interactive learning environments, nursing and midwifery programs, family health promotion, socially challenged children, special education classrooms, sports education, teacher education, and geriatric courses to name a few. since the interpretive pedagogies and conventional pedagogies co-occur, nurse educators should have an understanding of their differences in terms of theory, knowledge, experience, language, and social significance (diekelmann, 2001). exposure to interpretive pedagogy introduces new nurse educators to environments where conversations among participants promote emerging possibilities in practice (dahlberg, ekebergh, & ironside, 2003; ironside, 2001). the uniqueness of interpretive pedagogy encourages teachers and students to adjust to socially situated cognition, which is important for a practice discipline such as nursing. Classroom and simulated environments play a significant role in student learning, but learning in the authentic environment, and using stories about that environment, call for a different approach. interpretive pedagogies encourage students to process the multiple perspectives that exist in nursing, such as dieklemann's (2001) "concernful practices of schooling learning teaching." the model used for this course is to compare and contrast traditional learning theories and interpretive pedagogies, to show how they diverge and support each other for teaching and learning. Course Design the online course is scheduled over 15 weeks; live, synchronous classes meet for seven sessions on alternate weeks. sessions are archived for students who miss class or want to review the discussion. Content is organized into learning modules, each with unique readings and assignments to achieve the goal of understanding the co-occurrence and symbiotic relationship between interpretive pedagogy and contemporary learning theory. the specific learning goals are to: a) evaluate the historical perspective of conventional pedagogy and compare it with interpretive pedagogy; b) critique specific narrative pedagogies by general themes, teacher/student relationships, and strengths and limitations; c) analyze contemporary higher education theory as it supports interpretive pedagogies; d) analyze the impact of contemporary and future nursing practice on curriculum design and use of interpretive pedagogies; and e) create new pedagogical activities in the context of clinical experiences, classroom sessions, and teacher evaluation. assignments encourage immersion into the literature and critiquing exemplars of interpretive pedagogy from various disciplines. the textbooks used include schunk (2012) and diekelmann (2003). students are required to read textbook chapters and write three summaries: one to synthesize the major principles and theories; one to reflect on the synthesis and how it relates to a specific narrative pedagogy; and one to discuss how each principle and theory could be used for a strategy to teach nursing. …