Introduction

Abstract

If we consider that interpretation is an attempt to make clear, to make sense of text which might in some way be confused, incomplete, cloudy, unclear, and seemingly contradictory in one way or another (Taylor 1985: 1), then interpretation is constitutive of what makes a philosophical approach to educational research what it is. A philosophical approach to educational research is “seeing something as something” or a matter of interpretation—that is, making clear meanings of texts (Cavell 1979: 354). It is interpretation that accounts for that which is strange, mystifying, puzzling, unclear, and contradictory and which cannot be distanced from a philosophical approach to educational research (Taylor 1985: 17). In several ways, the authors of the eight chapters in this genre attempt to explain learning, teaching, curriculum, evaluation and assessment, educational organizations and leadership, equity, justice, and diversity, policy, and nonformal education—all interrelated educational fields that draw on philosophical approaches to educational research. We try to make sense of, and provide some understanding of our thoughts, speeches and writings in relation to readings and expressions of texts we have authored and perhaps lived in our lives. Our work has been presented as living agents in this text in relation to how we have experienced our situations in terms of certain meanings. In turn, our narratives recounted here are in turn interpreted by the explanations we proffer for our actions. As aptly put by Taylor (1985: 27), we meet an important condition of an interpretive science: “making sense of” our lived experiences. Of interest in the practice of interpretation is the agency of the narrators in this philosophical genre. In our own interpretations as captured and reflected in our narratives, we share our capacity for thought, speech, and our desire to search for meaning. Through our interpretations, we share our understandings, attitudes, and justifications in relation to the social practices in which we happen to work. Hence, our interpretations are intersubjective meanings, “ways of experiencing action in society which are expressed in the language and descriptions constitutive of institutions and practices” (Taylor 1985: 38). I now offer an exposition of the interpretive stances adopted by ourselves as we endeavor to give meaning to our educational research approaches vis-à-vis our specific educational fields.