Traversing the chiasms of lived experiences: phenomenological illuminations for practitioner research

Abstract

This article juxtaposes Merleau‐Ponty’s phenomenology of sense perception and practitioner research as well as demonstrating their potential to become integrated into powerful educational research and practice. The paper elaborates on Merleau‐Ponty’s metaphor of chiasm, extends its symbolic meaning to practitioner research and illustrates its application to the practice of martial and pedagogical arts. Expressed by the Greek letter χ (chi), chiasm means a crisscrossing of the perceiving and the perceived, self and other, language and meaning. Chiasm also signifies an intertwining, an intersection, reversibility, or the process of flowing of phenomena one into another. Chiasm is a contextual encounter of individuals and groups who, by taking action together, can change and transform their life‐worlds. Chiasm can symbolically represent practitioner research as an intertwining of theory and practice. Like the crosspiece, practitioner research can become an endless journey and the meeting place of a researcher’s self with the world of different and unique experiences, unpredictable turns, challenges and wonders. Merleau‐Ponty urges educators to explore and transform the life‐worlds of children and adults. The author of the article suggests that we traverse new intersections of practitioner research illuminated by phenomenological investigations.