Valuing Curriculum Evaluation as Scholarship: A Process of Developing a Community of Scholars

Abstract

Curriculum evaluation is an essential and complex activity intended to foster understanding of how teaching-learning practices serve to meet educational goals. This position paper provides a retrospective from the authors’ lived experience of one multi-institutional collaborative nursing programs’ history of curriculum evaluation and scholarship growth over 25 years. Key themes include an overview of collaborative curriculum evaluation underpinned by three philosophical perspectives, the influence of accreditation and re-mandated post-secondary institutions on scholarship development, an affirmation of curriculum evaluation as a form of knowledge development as supported by Boyer’s model of scholarship, and the development of scholarship expertise across collaborative partners through a focus on curriculum evaluation. Examples of curriculum evaluation practices are integrated throughout the paper. This retrospective review supports the contention that collaborative curriculum evaluation provides a strong foundation upon which to develop nursing education scholarship.