Thinking rhizomatically and becoming successful with disabled students in the accommodations assemblage: Using storytelling as method

• Published in: Nursing inquiry Vol. 29; no. 3; pp. e12475 - n/a
• Main Authors: Epstein, Iris, Rose, Jarrett R., Juergensen, Linda, Mykitiuk, Roxanne, MacEntee, Katie, Stephens, Lindsay
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-07-2022
• Subjects: accessibility; accommodation; clinical nursing; College students; critical social theory; disability; Experiential learning; Higher education; Nursing education; post structure; Storytelling; Students with disabilities
• ISSN: 1320-7881; 1440-1800
• DOI: 10.1111/nin.12475

The number of disabled students enrolled in higher education institutions is increasing. Yet in disciplines such as nursing, where placements are an important part of student success, students' lived experiences, though an important and necessary aspect of promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion, has been ignored. In this paper, we respond to such issues by creating and utilizing a novel storytelling method that harnesses the antiessentialist philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. Storytelling empowers students to both describe their experiences and inform institutions on how to better serve them, and we use concepts from Deleuze and Guattari to provide a framework for thinking about students and their pathways toward success as multiple. As we show, applying storytelling as a method through this lens offers an expansion of strategies to put students first and, therefore, promote equity at the administrative, research, educational, and practical levels. We describe how thinking rhizomatically opens new avenues of insight, allowing for the creation of institutional assemblages based on a diverse array of students' needs, enabling them to become successful in their own ways.