Within the culture of nursing education the discourses of logical positivism and existential concerns have generally been viewed as disparate voices in an ongoing debate concerning which is the more necessary for the profession. A resolution to the debate between these two philosophical spaces in nursing education is neither acceptable nor adequate if it proposes the elimination of either side. Using James Liszka's work in critical semiotics and T. K. Seung's framework of thematic tension, with the euphemism as a linguistic tool for unmasking implicit cultural themes, this study sets forth a formal argument for reframing the debate as a cultural dialectic. The goal of the study was to test Seung's principles of thematic resolution with Liszka's cultural semiotic as a plausible means of cultural criticism.

Philosophic analysis of published program materials of a BSN program illustrated the predominance of and commitment to a logical positivist approach to nursing education. Open-ended interviews with selected nursing faculty illuminated the lived experience of those committed to innovative teaching within a predominantly positivist climate of teaching and learning. Inclusion of the humanities, relevant problem-based learning and high regard for students as constructed knowers were proposed as markers of philosophical tension and thereby used as initial guidelines for faculty selection. Emergent themes and responses to thematic tensions provided material for further design of the study and for testing principles of thematic resolution. The significance of the study lies in its contribution to a theoretical framework for illuminating disparate voices in the professional education of nursing students and for illustrating the possible workability of a theoretical resolution advanced by Seung. The study is positioned in light of nursing, politics and health care reform and thereby transcends both Seung and Liszka in its practical relevance with implications concerning student learning and their contribution to society.