The Hermeneutic Circle and Postmodern Community

Curriculum development in the postmodern era includes an approach to understanding the meaning of texts, language, relationships, historical artifacts, and schooling called hermeneutics. Simply put, hermeneutics can be described as the art of interpretations.

Postmodern curriculum inquiry is also concerned with the ambiguous and ironic dimensions of education: an unexpected question triggers an exciting and provocative tangent; the changing moods and emotions of individuals create a unique and often perplexing life-world in classrooms; the same methodology is not always successful with every group of students: atmospheric changes in the weather alter the atmosphere of the school. Teachers can’t predict the ambiguous and ironic nature of life itself, especially in the classroom, and postmodern understandings of hermeneutics as an investigation into the ambiguous nature of being and knowledge now inform and enrich contemporary curriculum paradigms.

Hermeneutics, in its broadest formulation, is the theory of interpreting oral traditions, verbal communications, and aesthetic products. Traditional hermeneutics was originally concerned with understanding religious texts, canonical scriptures, and non-canonical writings within their own historical, cultural, and social milieu. Postmodernists would say such an interpretive task is impossible because the worldview of contemporary societies cannot replicate ancient cosmologies and subjectivities in which the original text was produced. It is also understood as the art of understanding the sense of the text.

Semiotics, the study of the meaning of language and the relationship between signs, symbols, and historical representation, critiques, hidden assumptions, uncovers excluded meanings, and deconstructs religious interpretations. Semiotics has been defined as :the science of life signs in society.” Semiotics offers the promise of a systematic, comprehensive and coherent study of communications phenomena as a whole. It attributes power to meaning rather than meaning to power. Like hermeneutics it is concerned with interpretation of texts, contexts, or artifacts.

Postmodern curriculum development will no longer turn to bureaucratic authorities to dictate the official methodologies of instruction and the official interpretation of texts. Educators wil not be seen as passive receptors of a “teacher proof curriculum” who simply implement standardized goals and objectives. Instead a postmodern community of interpreters and teachers will enter the hermeneutic circle and engage each other in the process of understanding the text, the lived experience, and the self in relation to the other. This will support the three fundamental elements of inquiry that comprise the hermeneutic circle at work in all human understanding. 1-The inherent creativity of interpretation, 2-The pivotal role of language in human understanding and 3-the interplay of part and whole in the process of interpretation.

Curriculum scholars must be cautioned that hermeneutic inquiry has the potential of infuriating and inciting those committed to traditional authoritative and bureaucratic structures.

Postmodern hermeneutics uncovers, interprets, clarifies, deconstructs, and challenges all fields of study, including curriculum development models and methods that have been enshrined for decades.

The hermeneutic circle will inform the upcoming discussions of race, gender, ethnicity, philosophy, ecology, politics, aesthetics, autobiography, and science.

Part II: Contemporary Curriculum Development Paradigms

Part two of this book introduces us to the scholarship of various postmodern curriculum discourses that are emerging in the 1990s.

Postmodern Schooling, Curriculum, and the Theological Text

Modernity has gradually attempted to remove theology and religion from the canon of respectable fields of study in public schools and secular universities. Postmodernity seeks to restore the prominence of theology and spirituality in curriculum discourses and practices.

Modern schooling has enshrined the written word as a historical artifact to be memorized, comprehended, and regurgitated on a standardized test. In contrast the postmodern views the text as a phenomenological encounter between word and reader. Reading the text is more closely associated with the Latin Ruminare (to ruminate and think things over). “Meaning is something we make out of what we find when we look at texts. It is not the text. [Unfortunately,} the myth of the meaningful text still flourishes in the classroom.” The Reconceptualization has challenged educators to wrest meaning from the grips of behavioral knowledge and return it to artistic expression so that students have something to do with texts in schools.

Postmodern scholars propose a model of curriculum as theological text where the educational enterprise will include the metaphysical dialogue. In this proposal self-reflection, intuition, nonrational discourse, nonlinear teaching methodologies, meditation, and wisdom are all encouraged and nurtured in the curriculum.
Modernity has encouraged the isolation of the individual, frozen in quantifiable time and space, unable to establish personal relationships, unable to remember past experiences, and incapable of affecting the future course of global events. A modern intelligentsia that disparages self-understanding is no better than premodern fundamentalists who denigrate rigorous intellectual investigation. A constructive postmodern curriculum, however, integrates both theology and self-reflection.

Many public schools and universities believe the addition of a course in Bible as literature, a degree program in comparative religion, or a moment of silence at graduation ceremonies will fully address the theological question in the curriculum. These views are problematic. A vision of a new model that integrates spirituality and theology throughout the school curriculum and community is the alternative that is being proposed.

Students should be given time and space during the day, within academic organizations, and throughout academic experiences to question, reflect, investigate, mediate, and ponder. Leisurely and thought-provoking visits to museums, nature trails, historical sites, etc. should exist. There should be reflective dialogue with the community, politicians, activists, etc. Community involvement in environmental projects, health and social services, etc. will be a priority. The borders between school and community will dissolve and the quality of reverent relationships will replace the quantity of correct answers on tests. Curriculum theorists contend that in this environment prayer does not need to be mandated or prohibited, it will flow from within the individual’s experiences of life.

Creating stimulating learning environments is not dependent on the latest technology. Teachers don’t have to be actors, magicians, or technicians to interest young people in education. Teachers and parents are encouraged to be guides who will inspire students to seek wisdom and understanding as part of a community of learners. Teachers, administrators and parents aren’t experts with all the answers but fellow travelers on the lifelong journey of learning.

If the theological curriculum is the active process of seeking, running, and ruminating, then the evolution of postmodern schooling will provide the milieu where spirituality, mystery, intuition, poetry, ethics, and religious sensibilities can flourish.