Theorizing From, About, Through, For, With, and Towards

Nursing theory's history reflects a movement from scientific legitimacy toward epistemic reflexivity. We situate that shift within nursing's metatheoretical evolution, expanding from hierarchies of abstraction to include pluricentric, context-responsive, and justice-oriented paradigms. It advances a reflexive grammar of theorizing organized around 6 prepositions (from, about, through, for, with, and towards), each identifying a locus of reflexivity. This grammar of interdependent reflexive loci reconceives theorizing as contingent, embodied, relational, and political labor that makes it explicit how positionality, onto-epistemologies, beneficiaries, sociomaterialities, and values shape knowledge creation. This transcends theorizing from being a procedural task to a dialogical, ethical, and imaginative act.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advances in Nursing Science
Published
2026-02-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1097/ans.0000000000000625
Primary Topic
Nursing education and management
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Theorizing From, About, Through, For, With, and Towards

Jerome V. Cleofas, Luis Emmanuel A. Abesamis
Advances in Nursing Science
Nursing education and management
article

Theorizing From, About, Through, For, With, and Towards

Jerome V. Cleofas, Luis Emmanuel A. Abesamis
article en

Abstract

Nursing theory's history reflects a movement from scientific legitimacy toward epistemic reflexivity. We situate that shift within nursing's metatheoretical evolution, expanding from hierarchies of abstraction to include pluricentric, context-responsive, and justice-oriented paradigms. It advances a reflexive grammar of theorizing organized around 6 prepositions (from, about, through, for, with, and towards), each identifying a locus of reflexivity. This grammar of interdependent reflexive loci reconceives theorizing as contingent, embodied, relational, and political labor that makes it explicit how positionality, onto-epistemologies, beneficiaries, sociomaterialities, and values shape knowledge creation. This transcends theorizing from being a procedural task to a dialogical, ethical, and imaginative act.

Advances in Nursing Science
University of the Philippines System (PH), Cleary University (US), Renesas Electronics (United States) (US), University of the Philippines Diliman (PH)
Openalex Percentile: Top 70%
Nursing education and management
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