Phenomenological Research

Phenomenology is a project of abstemious reflection on the lived experience of human existence abstemious, in the sense that reflecting on experience must, as much as possible, abstain from theoretical, prejudicial, and suppositional intoxications. But, phenomenology is also a project that is driven by fascination: being swept up in a spell of wonder, a fascination with meaning. The phenomenologist directs the gaze toward the regions where meaning originates, wells up, percolates through the porous membranes of past sedimentationsthen infuses, permeates, infects, touches, stirs us, and exercises a formative affect.

Within the broad field of curriculum studies, phenomenology is a form of inquiry that historically has induced several distinct perspectival interests, purposes, and practices. The perspectives are briefly outlined in this entry in terms of critical onto-theology, ...