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Essay about Second Theory Statement: Hermeneutics

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Second Theory Statement: Hermeneutics
“Hermeneutics is a disciplined approach to interpretation that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks studying literature and to biblical exegesis in the Judeo-Christian tradition.” (Crotty, 1998, p. 88-89). According to the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, “hermeneutics is the method of interpretation first of texts, and secondly of the whole social, historical, and psychological world.” ("Hermeneutics," n.d.). This paper will discuss the central idea of hermeneutics, hermeneutics as a perspective, and hermeneutics as an influence upon research activities as it might relate to instructional technology (IT).
The Theoretical Perspective of Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is invoked in many fields of …show more content…

Hermeneutics and the Researcher
Quantitative research becomes an interpretive enterprise when viewed through the lens of a hermeneutics perspective. Researchers may investigate “people’s perceptions, attitudes and feelings… to find useful insights if they look to the hermeneutics of the reading theorists and the literary critics.” (Crotty, 1998, p. 110). Hermeneutics as a perspective has new implications for online education in interpreting the data of interactions generated through web-based learning management systems with respect to perceptions, attitudes and feelings given the absence of direct interpretations drawn in traditional face-to-face settings. This is a legitimate question and hermeneutics as a theoretical perspective around this question is appropriate. “Our accounts must always refer to what people are doing, that is, to meaningful practices, rather than attempt to fully explain the meaning involved in what they are doing in some other terms” (Westerman, 2006, p. 197).
Research Questions Enabled by the Way of Hermeneutics
Continuing with the online education scenario, “hermeneutical assumptions will have to address the nature of meaning in inquiry within online learning contexts.” (Atkinson, 2010). If we expand the definition of text to recognize human interaction and situations as well as research data as text, ways of reading text becomes

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