Abstract

This paper explores how nursing education both exemplifies the contradictions of neoliberalism alongside its seemingly all-encompassing influence. We conduct a feminist critical policy analysis to trace the histories of nursing as a feminised vocation located outside the academy, and how this is reflected in recent policy. We then critically explore widening participation and social mobility in relation to nursing education, and demonstrate how a discourse of fairness is used to justify market solutions. The ‘special case’ of nursing is considered through an analysis of how ‘the nurse’ as subject is constituted in education policy discourse. Our discussion focuses on the effects of these reforms and demonstrates how historical discourses that centre on women as carers are assimilated into the ‘neoliberal social imaginary’. The paper’s scope is both local – the gendered history of nursing education in England – and global – the force of neoliberal globalisation in education policy.

摘要

本文探讨了护理教育如何既体现了新自由主义的矛盾，又带来了看似无所不包的影响。我们进行了女权主义的批判性政策分析，以追溯护理学的历史，这种护理是学院以外的一种女性化职业，并且在最近的政策中如何体现这一点。然后，我们将批判性地探索与护理教育有关的广泛参与和社会流动性，并论证如何使用公平话语为市场解决方案辩护。通过分析教育政策话语中作为主体的“护士”的构成，来考虑护理的“特殊情况”。我们的讨论着重于这些改革的效果，并展示了如何将以护理人员为中心的女性的历史性话语吸收到“新社会假想”中。