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.
Authors
- Jerome V. Cleofas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9203-0212)
- Luis Emmanuel A. Abesamis
Institutions
- University of the Philippines System (PH)
- Cleary University (US)
- Renesas Electronics (United States) (US)
- University of the Philippines Diliman (PH)
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