The State of the Learning Soul: An essay on Literature and Humanities in and as Educational Research
2017 (English)Conference paper, Abstract (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017.
Keyword [en]
Literature, Humanities, Educational Research, Philosophy, Heidegger, Cavell, Knausgård, Hamsun
National Category
Philosophy General Literature Studies Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Education and Learning
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-24674OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-24674DiVA: diva2:1086417
Conference
Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Annual Conference, Friday 31 March to Sunday 2 April 2017, New College, Oxford, UK
Note
In this essay I explore and demonstrate the possibility of a poetical and literary form of educational research, where literature and philosophy can be as prominent as social science, political theory, or psychology. How can educational research can be informed by the humanities, and its methods, or by aesthetic, poetic, forms of expression, to disclose the existential dimensions of learning; or, if it is possible, pave the way for thinking of educational research as a form of poetry in itself? In the first part of the essay I explore how this poetic educational research can be thought of as investigating of what the Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun calls “the state of the soul”. I exemplify the approach through Cora Diamond’s notion “moral adventure” in encounters with ethically controversial authors and texts, such as Hamsun’s and Karl Ove Knausgård’s autobiographical novels, and Heidegger’s philosophy and notebooks. In the second part I continue to explore the role of the humanities in educational research through a discussion Stanley Cavell’s philosophical autobiography. In the third and final part I give an example of educational research that emerges out the readings of a picture book in order to further demonstrate what exploring the state of the learning soul can involve.
2017-04-032017-04-032017-04-03Bibliographically approved