ABSTRACT
This chapter explores and portrays the possibility of a poetical and literary form of educational research, in which literature and philosophy can be as prominent and as fruitful as social science, political theory, or psychology. It discusses how educational research can achieve disclosure of the existential dimensions of learning through engagement not only with the humanities and its methods, but also with aesthetic, poetic, forms of expression. Furthermore, this can even pave the way for thinking of educational research as a form of poetry or literature in itself. The first part of this chapter explores how this poetic educational research can be thought of as investigating what the Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun calls “the state of the soul” (1994, p. 16). The approach, which sheds light on some of the most problematic aspects of literature as a source of knowledge, is exemplified by placing Cora Diamond’s notion of “moral adventure” (Diamond, 1991, p. 313) in encounters with ethically controversial authors and texts, such as Hamsun’s (1890) and Karl Ove Knausgård’s (2009–2011) autobiographical novels, and Heidegger’s philosophy and notebooks (2014). The second part of the chapter continues to explore the role of the humanities in educational research through a discussion of Stanley Cavell’s (2010) philosophical autobiography. The third and final part gives an example of educational research that emerges out the readings of a picture book, How Far Can Alfie Reach? (Bergström, 2002), in order to relate back to what it means to explore the state of the learning soul with regards to children.
