Experiential Criticism: Working Educational Criticism and Connoisseurship for Inquiries of Experience

• In Event: Eisnerian Inquiry

Abstract

This work presents experiential criticism as a framework for researching educational experience. The approach is couched within the tradition of educational criticism and connoisseurship and was derived through a study of the adventure education experience. It is comprised of three dimensions of inquiry: 1) observation of experience, 2) meanings ascribed to experience, and 3) participation in the experience. Each of these dimensions presents a different mode through which experience can be explored, and the use of all three modes positions the researcher/critic to arrive at a robust, empirically corroborated understanding of the experience. This framework contributes to the body of methods necessary to center experience in educational research.

Author

• Benjamin C Ingman, Center for Rural School Health & Education, Morgridge College of Education, University of Denver