Where is Cultural Safety in Education?

Abstract

Three nurse researchers came together in 2015 to conduct a study focusing on Indigenous learning within a Nurse Practitioner program in Canada. This work unfolds here as a series. The first, brings to the fore the researchers’ relationship with the research answering the question “Who am I in relation to the Research?” This is followed by an account of the research, “A call to action: Faculty perspectives of cultural safety within a nurse practitioner curriculum.” Coming to know the researchers’ experiences within the context of nursing education, practice and their personal life experiences became a vital activity, one that would drive and instigate the overall research endeavour. Through this integral process the researchers functioned also as participants where analysis was both self-interpretative and hermeneutic. Preunderstandings molded through societal, cultural and historical forces interconnected with meanings of Indigenous methodology. Unearthing root assumptions through critical dialogues and stories was found to illuminate embedded world-views that challenged pervasive colonial perceptions critical to understanding the interwoven nature of cultural safety and reconciliation. This writing may be of high interest for researchers and educators wishing to create and sustain culturally safe spaces in practice and learning environments.