Critical hermeneutics and educational research

paths of interpretive inquiry

Abstract

This theoretical-methodological study seeks to investigate, within hermeneutic literature, possibilities for grounding and guiding investigative approaches in educational research. Understanding hermeneutics as a process of interpretive unveiling, the study aims to identify its role in interpreting and revealing a world often falsified and mystified by power relations. The research is based on the premise that understanding, carried out with methodological awareness, should not merely conclude interpretations, but make them conscious and verifiable, thus underpinning the comprehension of the interpreted subject-object. In this way, critical hermeneutic epistemology is assumed as a reflexive paradigm, recognizing that it is through understanding and interpretation that explanatory methods are sought—methods that are not limited to explanation, but also encompass comprehension. The text emphasizes that the hermeneutic method is not reduced to external explanation, nor is it simply a technical instrument or a mechanical procedure based on rules. On the contrary, the method is configured as a reflective and open stance, allowing for multiple investigative pathways. This opens three fundamental methodological perspectives in hermeneutics: as the history of ideas, as an epistemological tradition, and as speculation. The text concludes that hermeneutics provides important tools that purely analytical and dialectical methods did not presuppose. By proposing an approach that values totality, historicity, and speculation, critical hermeneutics presents itself as a methodological alternative capable of broadening and deepening the perspective on educational phenomena, promoting research sensitive to the complexity of human relations and the contemporary challenges of educational research.