Seeking transformation: how students in nursing view their academic writing context – a qualitative systematic review

Writing practices in nursing education programs are situated in a tension-filled context resulting from competing medical-technical and relational nursing discourses. The goal of this qualitative meta-study is to understand, from the student perspective, how the context for writing in nursing is constructed and the benefits of writing to nursing knowledge development. A literature search using the CINHAL, Medline, ERIC, and Academic Search complete databases, using systematic methods identified 21 papers and dissertations which gathered qualitative interview or survey data from students in nursing at the pre-registration, continuing education, and graduate levels. The studies provided evidence that writing assignments promote professional identity development but overemphasis on writing mechanics when grading have a deleterious effect on learning and student engagement with writing. Relationship building with faculty should extend beyond what is needed to maximize grades. Suggestions for writing pedagogical reform are identified to facilitate a change in focus from mechanical-technical to transformative writing.

Transformative Writing Steps for Poets to Prose Writers

Diana Raab’s Writing for Bliss is a stimulating book that encourages and supports writing for passion based on reflection, truth, and freedom. The book was authored to provide prompts and techniques for writers on any level. The premise of the book began when Raab discovered writing was a healing mechanism for her and her late grandmother. Raab believes in the purity of writing for change and the seven-step plan as listed in the book. The purpose of this book was to serve as a reference for individuals who may consider transforming their lives through writing.

Performing Embodied Pedagogy: Listening to the Small Talk of My Injured Back

I approach my new class of teachers-in-training with familiar embodied postures of discomfort and pain, anxiety and fear. I listen to my embodied poetic texts and reinterpret them through an injured body as inquiry into all my identities as musician, writer, photographer, educator, and yogi. I introduce myself to my new students by playing my flute, a vulnerable demonstration and invitation to negotiate corporeal histories through arts-based expression and transformative writing processes.

The unlearning: Horror and transformative theory

Building on the foundational concepts of transformative learning theory, I argue that horror fiction strongly encourages perspective transformation by challenging student assumptions about both genre writing and educational experience. I informally describe a specific creative writing class period focusing on the motif of the scream in diverse horror texts, and I illustrate how students learn to transform what they already bring to the classroom by employing a variety of particular in-class writing exercises and literary discussions. Among these, transformative writing exercises—such as the revision of an existing text by Stephen King—are highlighted as instructional techniques. As cautionary literature, horror especially dramatizes strategies of fight versus flight. I reveal how students can learn by transforming their knowledge through disorientation that is particular to reading and writing in the horror genre.