Emancipatory teaching-learning philosophy and practice education in acute care: navigating tensions

Much has been written in the nursing literature about the intentions and desires of a transformatory movement in nursing education. However, dialogue and critique related to actual implementation of a curriculum revolution begun in the late 1980s are lacking. The acute care context of nursing practice holds particular challenges for faculty teaching in an emancipatory curriculum. How do faculty implement a philosophy of teaching-learning congruent with the curriculum revolution, in the context of an acute care setting that privileges empirical knowledge and values a behaviorist paradigm? In this article, we provide an example of one teaching approach grounded in an emancipatory ideology: critical questioning. We also discuss some of the tensions we associate with teaching-learning in an acute care context and our experiences of navigating these tensions.