Open AccessThe Moral Call to Learn: A Qualitative Investigation of Encounters with Unfamiliarity in Everyday Life
Author(s) -
Jonathan S. Spackman,
Stephen C. Yanchar,
Edwin E. Gantt
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2423
Subject(s) - narrative , qualitative research , embodied cognition , everyday life , psychology , action (physics) , phenomenon , narrative inquiry , epistemology , sociology , social psychology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
This qualitative study explored the moral aspects of learners’ “encounters with unfamiliarity” in their everyday experiences. The encounter with unfamiliarity, as a basic phenomenon within the conceptual framework of embodied familiarization, was investigated using a multiple case study approach (Stake, 2006). Findings from this study are presented first as brief case narratives and second as themes based on a cross-case analysis. Themes of the study point to the nature and significance of the encounter as a part of learning, often as an invitation with a kind of moral significance that called participants to learn, or not learn, in particular ways. Moreover, much of the learning described in participants’ accounts was itself a kind of moral action, enacted in response to the significance of the moral call to learn initiated by the encounter.