Hermeneutic experience and intersubjectivity in schools : on the way toward meaning

This study reflects the ontological significance of research itself. As a linguistic expression of the researcher's participation in an ongoing search for a greater understanding of intersubjectivity in schools, the study affirms the conditioned nature of being-ness that affects all efforts to interpret human experience. Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics is the model of interpretive theory used in the study. This model represents a speculative ontology that is open to the preunderstandings or prejudices of the interpreter/researcher who is pursuing an understanding of a text, an "other," or any subject matter. The researcher's self-reflective search for the underlying prejudgments that influence the research is a significant characteristic of the study. The openness of the study informs the possibility of finding meaning that is conditioned by the interpreter's historical experience and linguistic relationships