The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice [Paperback]

Elliot W. Eisner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0135314194 | ISBN-13: 978-0135314197 | Publication Date: July 24, 1997 | Edition: 2nd

This is an important new resource in qualitative research methods and educational research. This benchmark work gives readers a solid understanding of qualitative research and evaluation, and its great promise for evaluating and guiding educational practice. It demonstrates how the same methods used by critics in the arts and humanities, such as observing performance qualities, setting, and interaction patterns, also applies to the classroom practice. Excellent examples are provided to show what this type of research looks like, and how it can be applied to the evaluation of teaching, learning, and the overall school environment.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This highly regarded curriculum development text is designed to help readers understand the major approaches to curriculum planning and the formation of educational goals. In this edition, Eisner provides a conceptual framework that shows students the different ways in which the aims of education can be regarded...and, describes their implications for curriculum planning and teaching practices. Coverage is grounded in the belief that the appropriateness of any given educational practice is dependent upon the characteristics and context of the school program, and the values of the community that program serves. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

This is an important new resource in qualitative research methods and educational research. This benchmark work gives readers a solid understanding of qualitative research and evaluation, and its great promise for evaluating and guiding educational practice. It demonstrates how the same methods used by critics in the arts and humanities, such as observing performance qualities, setting, and interaction patterns, also applies to the classroom practice. Excellent examples are provided to show what this type of research looks like, and how it can be applied to the evaluation of teaching, learning, and the overall school environment.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2nd edition (July 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0135314194
• ISBN-13: 978-0135314197
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #733,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of written language and the power of words., December 16, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice (Paperback)

Designed as a text for education courses, The Enlightened Eye should be on everyone's reading list. The power of the author, Elliot Eisner, to convey ideas that are normally limited to esoteric "research" courses, and the "elite" graduate students who inhabit that world, is remarkable and refreshing. Through artistic and poetic imagery, the author transports the reader to a world of knowing that lies at the heart of connoisseur-ship and critical inquiry. Through a lens that distinguishes between seeing and looking we embark on a journey of discovery -- a journey that begins and ends in the qualities of our everyday experience. In sum, Elliot Eisner, provides a vehicle that guides us through the processes of decoding and encoding the meanings attached to "experience," including the objects that reside in that experience. It is a book that is a pleasure to read because the author writes well, seduces the reader, and provides opportunities for serious reflection. In sum, Elliot Eisner takes us on a qualitative journey discovery, through which we uncover the qualities of our life and our society. Buy it. Read it. Savor it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeking Truth, June 6, 2010

By 

Janet M. Myers (Jacksonville, FL, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice (Paperback)

If you have encountered ambiguity in seeking objectivity, Elliot Eisner's book offers an articulate guide to understanding how we "know". Certainly a bible for any researcher but also accessible for anyone interested in learning. A mind tingling and most worthy read!

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars unconvincing, August 5, 2009

By 

Evaluate (NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice (Paperback)

I have just read an extract from this book on Eisner's six features of qualitative inquiry (6 pages) and was rather horrified at the sort of qualitative researcher that he envisions replacing the problematic scientistic ideals. From the frying pan into the fire, if you ask me. Rather than humbling the researcher's role vis a vis knowledge, other people and perspectives, Eisner suggests these research 'experts' should see the 'self as an instrument' and aspire to take on all the pretensions to originality, deep insight, profundity and faux superiority of yesteryear artists. For Eisner, the (unfathomable) 'sensibilities' and 'connoisseurship' skills of the qualitative researcher and their 'personal' 'unique insight' should be recognised as a 'higher good'. Quite how he justifies his own particular hierarchical faith in the superiority of the expert's 'astute' insight from the terribly homogenising 'belief in the single right one' of conventional evaluative criteria, is not clear to me. Of course it doesn't seem to occur to him that one man's (sic) insight might well be another's poopycock. Anyway, I should've expected something like this given the title.
But what strikes me about this approach is that it seems out of joint with the directions of our times. I doubt many people (at least those not aspiring to be an expert) are going to be any more convinced than i was by this new brand of expertise than the much criticised scientistic form. I suspect people would rather a change in the relation of power with experts than another choice of flavour.