Considers the relationship of rhetoric to hermeneutics. Describes a practical understanding of interpretation which presents hermeneutics as a specialized application of topical invention. Reviews the historical origins of the dominance of hermeneutics over rhetoric and the split between theory and practice. (HB)

Understanding how an informed diagnosis is comprehended by the client becomes essential when evaluating persons with suspected dementia. A phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis of interviews with persons (N=8) evaluated clinically for suspected dementia revealed that clinical diagnosis provided participants some means of "making sense"…

Applies Heidegger's hermeneutic circle to research in higher education, specifically use of the pilot study to experientially ground proposed research. Description of a pilot study on higher education leadership illustrates the principle. Implications for higher education research include the importance of (1) grounding research in practical…

Investigated relationships between Biblical hermeneutics and reading instruction in Christian elementary schools. Surveys of and interviews with teachers representing varying views examined their theoretical orientations to reading and views of Biblical authority. Results indicated teachers took a middle position in all areas assessed and viewed…

Explores how writing instructors at "City University" grappled with crises of standardization in evaluation of students' portfolios. Details the two most severe experiences in multiple breakdowns in the project of standardization: crises of textual representation and crises of evaluative subjectivity. Examines conflicting interpretations…

Uses the methodology of critical hermeneutics to analyze Chief Executive Officers' letters to shareholders in the United States petroleum industry during the 1970s and 1980s. Suggests these letters were deployed to produce a certain attitude toward OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) among their readers that deflected attention of…

In a number of personal communications and now in her article in "Educational Researcher", Mary Juzwik repeatedly observes that some elaborations may be needed for fuller understanding of the notion of "identity-as-narrative", introduced in the article this author co-wrote with Anna Prusak "Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for…

This interpretive study examined the lived experiences of young college-educated Taiwanese women employed as clerical workers. Using hermeneutic phenomenology as the research methodology, the study explored the meanings of the participants' lived experiences. Systematic text analysis of the data revealed various experiences and expectations.…

The field of educational leadership is currently in flux and transition. Scholars and practitioners are being compelled to engage concepts and frames of thinking that are substantively different from the traditional paradigm that has served as the foundation for educational leadership for some time. Included in this new way of perceiving…

For the past five years, the author has participated with several youthworkers in a study of youthwork as an interpersonal process of interaction. Their inquiry includes four general steps. First, they try to be in their work fully so they can know and experience it. Second, they reflect on an experience. Third, they write a story about it. And…

This article describes an innovative program that assists individuals with their personal development and teaches them to craft lives of meaning and purpose. Framed around developmental, relational-cultural and life span transitional theories, the program explores themes such as identity, security, relationships, beliefs/values and dreams/visions…

A previous keynote to the Act Reflect Revise Conference, focused on the significance of Creating Our Own Knowledge (Whitehead, 2000) for enhancing educators' professional knowledge-base. This 2005 keynote develops the theme of creating the author's and his colleagues' own knowledge in living theories of their productive lives in education. The…

The purpose of this study was to discuss the dance technique class experiences of students in a university dance program. Working within a post-positivist methodological framework, I interviewed five university dancers. Using the lenses of phenomenology and hermeneutics, I compared and contrasted the women's stories with each other's and my own.…

This article proposes to read events of the educational past not as history but as midrash. It juxtaposes an historical account of a watershed experiment in adult education (Franz Rosenzweig's Freie Judisches Lehrhaus) with an ethnographic account of a presently practicing elementary school teacher. These accounts are generically different and…

This paper explores the similarities and differences between complexity science's and cultural-historical activity theory's understandings of human learning. Notable similarities include their emphasis on the importance of social systems or collectives in understanding human knowledge and practices, as well as their characterization of systems'…