This paper focuses primarily on the later work of Said. After a brief review of what Said himself saw as formative events in his life it reviews the tradition of "philological hermeneutics" as Said himself defined it and within which he located his own work as a scholar. His key themes of intertextuality, post-colonialism, and…

In engaging in research we draw upon and develop meanings and concepts that help to frame what we do, how we do it and the meaning we make of it. In the process of framing, we exclude other possibilities from our research practices. To do research, then, is to engage in the fashioning of conceptual boundaries. This article explores the dilemmas of…

In the period of active transformations in Russian society in the past several decades it is extremely difficult to speak of any generally accepted standards of behavior. Specialists have noted that all countries that are undergoing "postcommunist" transformations are characterized by a discrepancy between social norms that are codified…

In this essay Maureen Ford examines a selection of situated knowledges discourses in order to make explicit their attention to political effects. She contends, first, that the "epistemic public(s)" constituted through these discourses are multiple, interactive, performative, and layered, and further that they are explicitly political in ways that…

Through the use of some purposeful anachronisms, Tom Stoppard uses his 1993 play "Arcadia" to explore the effects on man's psyche of the transition from Newton's Laws to the laws of thermodynamics and from thermodynamics to chaos theory. However, remarkably similar reactions to these changes are also reflected in works from the actual time periods…

As with many science fiction works, the "Star Trek" franchise uses allegory to address contemporary social issues. Taking a liberal humanistic stance, it addresses race and racism using aliens as allegorical stand-ins for humanity. However, the producers of the "Star Trek" franchise were inadvertently perpetuating the racism they were advocating…

In this article, I present a qualitative analysis of third graders' experiences with a unit from their district-mandated commercial reading curriculum in which the children made strong connections between a fictional account of a Depression-era farm family's economic hardships and their own 21st century lives in a city with one of the highest…

In many countries, strategies to further develop services and institutions for the education and care of young children are linked to a discourse on professionalism. Ambitious policy goals, it is argued, can only be achieved by a skilled and qualified workforce whose practice is guided by a professional body of knowledge. This article argues that…

The social epistemic that the Mennonite-Anabaptists have been cultivating as their hermeneutic method for 470 years focuses on local congregations as discourse communities of faith, promoting egalitarian lay participation equal to that of members with formal ministries. "The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective" features a…

This paper highlights the relative strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary methods of research synthesis and proposes a multistage approach to research synthesis that draws on the strengths of each of these individual methods. In this approach, the decisions at every step of the synthesis process are guided by the nature of the data. The…

Finds the role of analogy in learning extensively researched. Argues research should shift focus from determining effectiveness of analogy in cognitive transfer from base to target domains towards recognition of the role of analogy in generating engagement in the learning process. Draws on hermeneutic philosophy to provide a theoretical framework.…

A hermeneutical study of 723 nursing students identified themes related to their caring experiences: caring as offering, "leaps ahead" caring, and creating a caring place. There is a need to study how teachers can use teaching to empower students and to explore how learning is shaped by caring interactions with faculty. (SK)

Multicultural hermeneutics is introduced as a method of understanding and dealing with marital domestic violence. One Korean-American family case is presented to show how marital domestic violence can be evaluated and treated better from the perspective of multicultural hermeneutics. A number of recommendations are also suggested to change the…

Identifies some sources of theoretical confusion in the field of human development and some ways to think about this confusion. Calls for a reorientation of researchers' perspectives toward themselves and those whom they study. (PCB)

Explores a hermeneutical perspective of modern medicine. The author suggests that good medical decision making requires interpretation, and bioethics will be well served by incorporating this interpretive element. (LZ)