Invited Commentary: A post-deferential society?

Abstract

In the course of one of several public e-mail discussions sparked by a deliberately provocative attack on nursing made by Ms. Minette Marrin (2011) in the Sunday Times, it was suggested that we live in a 'post-deferential society'. Although an intriguing claim, this certainly is not the case from where I stand! Indeed, the university, as the principal site of nurse education, is universally an exemplar of a deferential, hierarchical system, in which academics teach critical thinking but kowtow without a hint of resistance to the most unwanted and unreasonable demands of those in authority.