Schooling For Oppression: A Critical Hermeneutical Analysis of the Lived Experience of the Returning RN Student

Although registered nurses (associate degree and diploma graduates) represent one of the fastest growing cohorts in baccalaureate schools of nursing, we know little about what they find meaningful about their schooling experience. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to unveil common meanings embedded in the lived experience of RNs returning to school for their baccalaureate degree. Returning RNs (RRNs) from three BSN programs (N = 15) participated in extended, unstructured interviews. The audiotaped interviews were transcribed verbatim and the resulting texts were analyzed hermeneutically to identify common meanings, relational themes across texts, and constitutive patterns expressing relationships between themes. Heideggerian phenomenology was the philosophical background for the analysis; secondary critical hermeneutical analysis utilized feminist scholarship and the work of critical social theorists. One relational theme that emerged--"Schooling For Oppression"--describes how the contested ideology of professionalism, and traditional behavioral teaching strategies, were used to prescribe the thoughts, values, and behavior of the RRNs.