Welcome to Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga where we journey through the history of nursing education connecting the past to the present and then our future as we reimagine teaching and learning. As we celebrate the NLN Year of the Nurse Educator, celebrating extraordinary nurses who made significant contributions to nursing education, let's dive into the stories of nurse educators who recognized a need, challenged traditional customs, and influenced transformative
change. In this episode, we bring you part two of Saga celebrating the work of Em Olivia Bevis. In part one of the Em Olivia Bevis story, we highlighted her conversion from an advocate of the behaviorist-based Tyler model of curriculum development to one who enthusiastically joined the NLN curriculum revolution to embrace a humanistic
approach to curriculum design. Part two will focus on Dr. Bevis's work as a member of the revolution where she influenced sweeping changes in nursing education, providing the basis for teaching in ways that engage students in higher order thinking while helping them develop and direct their caring and compassion in ways that enhance healing. In her classic essay, "New Directions for a New Age," published by the NLN in 1988, Dr. Bevis asked nurse educators to rethink their
definition of curriculum change. In her words: Calling on her legendary sense of humor, she likened the exercise to align by a great Roman philosopher who wrote 2000 years ago, "I was shipwrecked before I got aboard." In her now classic book, "Toward a Caring Curriculum: A New Pedagogy for Nursing," that she wrote with Dr. Jean Watson," the AJN 1990 Book of the Year, Dr. Bevis advocated for a new perception of curriculum and curriculum
building. She placed the emphasis not on plans, not on content outlines, not on attainment of traditional behavioral change, but on human interactions with learning intentionality. She asked nurse educators to focus on how to teach rather than a sole emphasis on what to teach. She challenged current assumptions about how faculty construct learning and how students learn. She defined curriculum as engagement as a caring moral
imperative. Curriculum, she wrote, "...is the transactions and interactions that take place between students and teachers and among students with the intent that learning takes place." To Dr. Bevis, liberating teacher-student interactions is necessary to support educative learning. Her now famous call to nurse educators was to align with students, not content.
These ideas were radical departures from current thinking and for some nurse educators, too distant from the behavioral training models that permeated
accreditation and program standards. For others, her ideas spurred thoughtful dialogue about how to build a new educative, humanistic approach to create student-teacher interactions that are caring, equalitarian, to accomplish learning that is meaningful and builds higher order thinking, and to build intentional learning communities. Doesn't this discourse sound familiar? To move
our lectures or monologues to dialogue. To engage student-centered learning where we guide thinking and teach them how to use the content versus teaching them the content. Dr. Bevis died suddenly in 2000 leaving a legacy of ideas and perspectives that continue to guide faculty and shape thinking about how students learn
and how nursing curriculum must evolve. Her writing, her gift of humor to help nurse educators appreciate new perspectives, and her ability to promote an emancipatory curriculum while acknowledging the inherent challenges was a turning point in the ongoing curriculum revolution. Her work continues to inspire faculty
and nursing graduates today. In 1988, she shared her passion for a new teaching paradigm and her belief that a revolution was inherently needed to meet nursing's fundamental responsibility to the public trust. Again in her words: And so the saga continues and may our saga continue as we bring to a close this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga. Thank you for joining us you