ABSTRACT
This chapter draws from a sociocultural and dialogical perspective and examines the theoretical and methodological issues of the notion of ‘aesthetic experience’ in learning. What are the conditions, in an educational context, for moving from a mere experience to an aesthetic experience? The pioneering works of Vygotsky and Dewey conceive the aesthetic experience as a connection to the world, to others, and to oneself that involves transforming one lived experience into the object of a new lived experience. This notion seems interesting because it echoes current works from a sociocultural and dialogical perspective that aims to develop learning which is not limited to rational and logical processes but that considers affective, experiential, and intellectual dimensions as interrelated. After explaining the characteristics of an aesthetic experience defined here around the dimensions of tensions and contradictions in dialogues and the transformative and unifying potential of emotions, we present methodological implications of this theorisation and illustrate them with an example from our research on a lesson of philosophy. At the end of the chapter, we discuss some consequences for educational and research practices that this approach may entail.
