Silence & Voice in the Academic Jungle

This ethnography was undertaken to examine and understand the society, culture and communication of the nursing profession among nurse academics employed within Australian schools of nursing. The resulting narrative critically explored how nurse academics¿ sense of professional identity is influenced by social and cultural factors that in turn influence the articulated image of the profession to both students and colleagues. Engagement in dialogue of the connections between culture, teaching and learning (education), communication and context (historical, social and political) enabled participants the opportunity to consider and reflect upon both functional and dysfunctional power relationships existing within the institutions.