The education experiences of Zimbabwean nurses recruited to undertake pre-registration nurse education in the UK Raviro Roselyne Masamha Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education The University of Leeds School of Education April 2020 1 Intellectual Property and Publication Statements The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. Sections of this thesis have appeared in publication as follows: Masamha, R.2018. The liability of foreignness: Decolonial struggles of migrants negotiating African identity within UK nurse education. In: de Jong.S., Icaza,R., Rutazibwa,O. ed. Decolonisation and feminisms in global teaching and learning. London: Routledge, pp.75-90. Masamha, R.2018. Post-it notes to my lecturers. In: de Jong.S., Icaza,R., Rutazibwa,O. ed. Decolonisation and feminisms in global teaching and learning. London: Routledge, pp.147-152. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement The right of Raviro Roselyne Masamha to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. i Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge and express my sincere gratitude to: My supervisors - Helen Bradbury and Dr Rebecca O’Rourke, without whom I would not have been able to undertake or complete this research. Your unwavering support, your continuous guidance, your nurturing, your dedication and commitment and your care will never be forgotten. Your impact on my work and my personal growth extends far beyond achieving completion. My most sincere and heartfelt gratitude, I wish you all the best in your future endeavours. My participants - for the privileged access to your very personal and touching stories, without which this thesis would not have been possible. My mother and siblings - for your dedicated support both practically by stepping in to look after the children and emotionally by always encouraging me. My husband - for steadying my hand, being my sounding board and helping me to keep things in perspective. All my friends and colleagues for your constant encouragement and support. God, above all things. I dedicate this thesis to: My children - Nathaniel Tavimba and Simone Maita whose ability to pull me out of my head and thrust me into the moment provided a much-needed balance, particularly given the intensity of this research. Your tolerance of my absences went over and above anything I had any right to expect, the pressures of this research often forced themselves onto precious family time. It is however my hope that you will find refuge in this writing wherever your futures may take you - that you may find the strength to own your presence wherever you are. I will love you always. My late father - FDH Chifamba, who instilled in me a desire to always learn. I wish you were here to share this moment with me - may your soul rest in peace. To all migrants navigating various journeys in foreign lands, away from home. Whatever your circumstance, this is in acknowledgement of you – in validation of your struggles. ii Abstract This research is concerned with decolonisation and migration in the context of nursing education. It offers a new perspective in shaping knowledge production within nursing education by drawing attention to the impact of how knowledge is produced and structured within nursing education. This research explores the experience of migrant nursing students, of whom I was one, recruited from Zimbabwe to train and work as nurses in the United Kingdom (UK). It adopts a case study approach to investigate my nursing education experience and that of 6 other Zimbabwean nurses. Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) was used as a framework to situate my personal story and centralise it, thus facilitating my dual role as both participant and researcher. Participants were identified and interviewed within a Heuristic Enquiry (HE) approach and gave retrospective accounts of their pre-registration nursing education in the UK following international recruitment. Through its deliberate use of a non-traditional research approach, the research broadens the understanding of what can constitute scholarship while pushing back against academia’s tendency to restrict what is permitted scholarly recognition. The research positions personal experience as a knowledge form by demonstrating personal experience’s authority in shaping knowledge and contributing to scholarly literature. Additionally, the research showcases the value of African knowledges. Through the participant accounts this research exposes and discusses the entanglements of the teaching and learning exchange. The research identifies these entanglements as relating to issues of knowledge hierarchies, non-native status, language, belonging, race and transition into a western adult education context. The research interrogates these in the context of postcolonial dynamics and how these shape diasporic identities in general and African identities in particular. Through its engagement with multiple fields of enquiry, current contextual debates and direct experiences, this research proposes a platform through which and from which to analyse the UK as an environment that frames the experiences of migrant students within nursing education. iii Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................ 1 1.1 Context ............................................................................................. 3 1.1.1 International Nursing Recruitment ........................................... 5 1.1.2 Nursing Education in the UK ................................................... 8 1.1.3 Colonialism, Coloniality and the Postcolonial ........................ 10 1.1.4 Personal Motivation for Research and Research Problem .... 14 Chapter 2 Critical Methodologies ............................................................. 16 2.1 Positioning the research and developing methodology .................. 16 2.2 Scholarly Personal Narratives (SPN) ............................................. 18 2.3 Heuristic Enquiry (HE) – The internal search to know .................... 20 Chapter 3 Study Design and Methods ..................................................... 22 3.1 Case Study Approach..................................................................... 22 3.2 Participant Recruitment .................................................................. 22 3.3 Data Collection Methods ................................................................ 24 3.4 Data Analysis Process .................................................................... 25 Chapter 4 : My SPN .................................................................................... 28 Chapter 5 Panashe ..................................................................................... 46 Chapter 6 Farai ........................................................................................... 57 Chapter 7 Shamiso .................................................................................... 71 Chapter 8 Musa .......................................................................................... 82 Chapter 9 Chipo ......................................................................................... 88 Chapter 10 Netsai ....................................................................................... 95 Chapter 11 Liability of Foreignness ....................................................... 102 11.1 Social Performance in nursing ...................................................... 103 11.2 English Language Proficiency ...................................................... 105 11.3 Understanding Teaching and learning .......................................... 106 11.4 Agency ......................................................................................... 109 Chapter 12 Reflexivity ............................................................................. 111 12.1 Personal Challenges .................................................................... 114 12.2 Ethical Dilemmas .......................................................................... 116 12.3 Limitations of the Research .......................................................... 118 Chapter 13 Implications for practice ...................................................... 120 13.1 ‘Thinking with complexity’ ............................................................. 122 13.2 Implications for future research .................................................... 124 iv Chapter 14 Conclusion ............................................................................ 126 References ............................................................................................... 128 Appendices .............................................................................................. 148 Appendix 1: Participant Information Sheet ............................................ 148 Appendix 2: Participant Consent ........................................................... 150 Appendix 3: Ethics Approval Letter ....................................................... 151 Appendix 4: Figurative Illustration of the conceptual framework and themes ......................................................................................... 153 Appendix 5: