A philosophy underlying excellence in teaching.

This article discusses nursing education and changing paradigms of knowledge, emphasizing critical thinking, nursing praxis, and the place of the educator as a role model who provides knowledge, facilitates critical thinking, and teaches students how to cope with the knowledge. It interprets the connection between knowledge and power as a potential source of injustice and inequality in the student-teacher relationship; and tries to solve this problematic issue by annulling the differences in power. Examples from clinical areas are presented to illustrate differential power the educator-teacher-researcher has in different clinical areas.