Philosophies that I Enjoy

Existentialism

Existentialism begins with the idea that “existence precedes essence.” We are not born with a fully formed identity or purpose; we shape who we are through the choices we make and the ways we act in the world. Meaning is created while living through circumstances that remain uncertain and unfinished.

In my work, this appears through learning as self-authorship and becoming. Learning changes more than what a person knows—it can change how they understand themselves, how they relate to knowledge, and who they may become. Liminality is important here because uncertainty creates space for questioning, interpretation, and new ways of positioning oneself in the world.

Pragmatism

Pragmatism asks what ideas actually do in lived experience. Knowledge grows through action, reflection, experimentation, and attention to the consequences of what we believe and practice. An idea gains value through the difference it makes in how people understand and engage with the world.

In my work, this is reflected in experiential knowing and in my interest in making theory useful. Learning becomes something people participate in, reflect on, and carry into future action. My research also moves repeatedly between practice and theory: observing what learners do, interpreting what emerges, and translating those findings into resources for designing future learning experiences.

Post-Constructivism

Post-constructivism builds on the idea that people actively construct knowledge, while recognizing that this process involves much more than the mind alone. Bodies, emotions, materials, environments, culture, and relationships all take part in how meaning is formed.

This is central to my work. I understand learning as embodied, affective, multimodal, relational, and material—something created through the interaction of people, experiences, tools, symbols, and spaces. Cutting, arranging, layering, remembering, feeling, and reflecting are therefore part of thinking itself. Knowledge is expressed through form, while that form also helps bring the knowledge into being.

Poststructuralism

Poststructuralism questions the idea that meaning, identity, or knowledge can ever be completely fixed. The idea of the “death of the author” suggests that once something is expressed, its meaning is no longer controlled entirely by the person who created it. Meaning remains open to changing contexts, relationships, and interpretations.

Semiotics is especially important here. Words, images, symbols, metaphors, genres, layouts, gestures, and even absences carry cultural meanings that learners can adopt, rearrange, or transform. In my work, this connects with becoming, positionality, semiotic freedom, and open-ended inquiry. Learners intentionally compose meaning, while allowing questions, tensions, and interpretations to remain alive beyond the finished artifact.

Posthumanism

Posthumanism challenges the idea that the human being stands alone at the center of knowledge and experience. It understands people as deeply connected with other beings, objects, technologies, environments, language, and material conditions. Agency is therefore relational and distributed across the worlds in which people participate.

In my work, knowledge emerges through these relationships. Materials, bodies, cultural signs, museum spaces, memories, and creative tools all participate in the learning process. Paper, texture, placement, movement, and physical surroundings do more than carry an idea that already exists; they shape what becomes possible to think, feel, and express. Knowing, doing, and being develop together through this material and relational participation.

Social Epistemology

Social epistemology asks how knowledge is created, shared, recognized, and trusted within communities and institutions. Much of what we know develops through other people, cultural practices, testimony, dialogue, and shared forms of inquiry. It also considers who is recognized as a credible knower and whose interpretations are given authority.

In my work, this appears through learners claiming their place as knowledge authors. Museum knowledge becomes a resource they can interpret, reorganize, question, and contribute to. Their experiences, cultural references, emotions, and creative expressions become meaningful forms of knowledge. This supports epistemic plurality: a learning environment in which distinct voices and ways of knowing contribute to shared understanding.