Personal Practical Knowledge Research

Research studies in personal practical knowledge have had a significant impact on scholarship in curriculum studies and how educators think through problems pertaining to teaching and [Page 640]learning. Personal practical knowledge is often characterized as a form of situated knowledge and associated with feminist standpoint theory. It is generally understood to be shaped and influenced (but not solely determined by) one's social position, emotional life, politics, institutional demands, conscious and unconscious desires, tastes, and aesthetics. Personal practical knowledge is also described as implicit, taken-for-granted, fluid, and tacit. The term personal practical knowledge has been used in curriculum studies to account for what has been termed the tacit knowledge that influences teachers' practical action in the classroom. Studies that use personal practical knowledge as a unit ...