Abstract This research project explores how notions of Canadian exceptionalism are being challenged and/or reproduced in responses of students of seven Canadian universities to a survey related to internationalization of higher education. The study analyses data from surveys (n=1451) completed by undergraduate students in different disciplines collected between 2013 and 2015. This data is part of a larger database of surveys that was developed within the Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education (EIHE) research project (2012–2016). This research adopts a mixed-methods approach to the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. A post-representational approach to the methodology of social cartography is used to map two facets of the data. These facets are the general discursive field in which various exceptionalist tendencies are being contested and/or reproduced, and the multiple dimensions of articulations of exceptionalist tendencies. Canadian exceptionalism is in this research understood as a complex set of self-constitutive discursive practices, policies, self-perceptions and assumptions that simultaneously affirm and construct an imaginary of Canadian society and Canadian nationals as morally, ethically and culturally superior by exalting both the nationals’ and the nation-state’s inherent character as already good global citizens. Exceptionalism is used as an umbrella term that joins together several problematic aspects of unexamined ennobled narratives about the nation and national subjects. In this research the concept of exceptionalism is developed by drawing on multiple critiques of different aspects of liberal subjectivities. The findings suggest that exceptionalist tendencies and articulations can be observed in the responses of both international and Canadian students. They also suggest that while critical thinking and engagement with diversity are valued highly by almost all students, the responses in the survey exhibit a high level of ambivalence in terms of how (and to what extent) critical thinking is deployed, while diversity is often constructed in commodified ways that seem to indicate a desire for consumption of the Other’s difference for personal and/or national benefit. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kanadalaista poikkeuksellisuutta koskevien käsitysten haastamista ja/tai toisintamista seitsemän kanadalaisen yliopiston opiskelijoiden vastauksissa kyselyyn, joka liittyi korkeakoulutuksen kansainvälistymiseen. Aineisto (n=1451) on kerätty eri alojen kandidaattivaiheen opiskelijoilta vuosina 2013–2015 ja se on osa laajempaa Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education (EIHE) -projektissa (2012–2016) syntynyttä kyselytietokantaa. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään monimenetelmällistä lähestymistapaa laadullisen ja määrällisen aineiston analyysiin. Aineistoa kartoitetaan kahdesta näkökulmasta jälkiedustuksellisen sosiaalisen kartografian avulla. Nämä näkökulmat ovat 1) yleinen diskursiivinen kenttä, jossa erilaisia poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssejä haastetaan ja/tai toisinnetaan ja 2) poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssien artikulaatiot ja niiden moninaiset ulottuvuudet. Kanadalainen poikkeuksellisuus ymmärretään tässä tutkimuksessa monimutkaiseksi rakennelmaksi itseään toteuttavia diskursiivisia käytäntöjä, toimintatapoja sekä ihmisten käsityksiä ja oletuksia itsestään, jotka samanaikaisesti vahvistavat ja rakentavat kuvitelmaa kanadalaisesta yhteiskunnasta ja Kanadan kansalaisista moraalisesti, eettisesti ja kulttuurisesti ylempiarvoisina ihmisinä ylistämällä kansalaisten ja kansallisvaltion luonnetta luonnostaan hyvinä maailmankansalaisina. Poikkeuksellisuutta käytetään ylemmän tason terminä, joka nostaa esiin useita ongelmallisia näkökulmia tutkimattomiin kansakuntaa ja kansalaisia koskeviin ylevyyden narratiiveihin. Poikkeuksellisuuden konseptia rakennetaan tässä tutkimuksessa viimeaikaisen liberaalin subjektiivisuuden eri näkökulmia koskevan kritiikin pohjalta. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssejä ja artikulaatioita esiintyy sekä ulkomaisten että kanadalaisten opiskelijoiden vastauksissa. Vaikka tulosten perusteella lähes kaikki opiskelijat arvostavat vastauksissaan kriittistä ajattelua ja moninaisuuden kohtaamista, vastauksista välittyy hyvin ristiriitainen näkemys siitä, miten (ja missä määrin) kriittistä ajattelua lopulta hyödynnetään. Tällöin diversiteetti jäsentyy usein kulutushyödykkeen tavoin osoittaen ilmeistä halua käyttää toisen erilaisuutta oman ja/tai kansallisen edun hyväksi.

Abstract The aim of this study is to describe the development of nursing students' decision-making as a part of their professional skills during their nursing education. The population consisted of 32 college nursing students who had started their education in January 1987 or 1988 and 23 polytechnic nursing students who had started their education in 1996. The college students' process of learning decision - making was studied during 1988-1991 by taping clinical lessons about planning patient care (terms IV-VI) and by collecting essays prodeced by the students during the clinical periods (terms III, V and VII). Essays produced by the polytechnic students (terms III and IV) during 1997-1998 were also collected. The data were analyzed by using both quantitatively and qualitatively content analysis (deductive and inductive analysis). The results show that rational decision-making was emphasized both in college and in polytechnic. The care plans made by the students were consistent with the phases of the nursing process. Of the different phases of the nursing process the implementation and the evaluation of nursing care were most important. At the beginning of their practical training college students emphazised nursing methods, while polytechnic students focused on medical methods. In all data sets, most uttrances pertained to the physical aspects in the implementation of nursing, in the definition of nursing problems and in the evaluation of nursing. As learning proceeded from one term to the next no changes were seen. The only exception were the clinical lessons at the beginning of the education and the essays and clinical lessons during the last phases of education in which psychic support and the need to evaluate the patient's psychic condition were emphazised. At the beginning of practical training polytechnic students gave more attention to physic support of the patient than college students. Plenty of knowledge was collected about a patient for purposes of decision-making, but it was only partly utilized as the planning of care proceeded. All data sets clearly reflected the mechanical decision-making model. At the beginning of practical training the next largest category in the college students' data was the patient-centered model which was only rarely seen in the polytechnic data. In all data sets the objectives of nursing were defined in a patient-centered manner. The college data included a small number of features of the model-oriented and creative decision-making model which were not found in the polytechnic data at the beginning of practical training at all. The following features of the creative decision-making model were found setting priorities, giving reasons for choosing the nursing model, nursing problems and methods and producing alternative nursing solutions. In both data sets the students' learning level appeared to be quite low. The findings reflected superficial mechanical learning without reflection and critical thinking.