The nurse as a change agent

Cultural and political limitations within a rational approach towards educational change

This paper considers the use of a rational curriculum planning model within nurse education. It suggests that the process of change within the model is oversimplified and mechanistic. As such it denies or ignores the experience of individuals involved in the change process by reducing their personal, cultural and political realities to a level of idealogical control. The unrestrained or unmodified application of a rational approach may, by this control, inhibit the development of change arising from subjective experiences. It may further be viewed as a political strategy which benefits powerful groupings within the school thus institutionalizing this power and maintaining the status quo in terms of power and influence.