Abstract
Background/Context
In recent years, the humanities have frequently been described as “under attack” or “in crisis” in both popular media and academic writing. In this climate, it is particularly critical to develop a stronger understanding of the value of the humanities. While there are many theoretical arguments about their value, the base of empirical research that is focused on understanding how the humanities make a contribution to human development is not as robust as the theoretical arguments. Developing the base of empirical research requires the development of assessment tools that are grounded in humanistic practice and the implicit learning theories employed by humanists.
Objective
This study seeks to uncover and describe the implicit learning theories employed by a sample of humanist practitioners who applied for and received funding from the public humanities organization Illinois Humanities (IH) between 1981 and 2012.
Research Design
This project used qualitative analysis to study 89 grant proposals that were submitted to and funded by IH between 1981 and 2012. This archive was analyzed in a three-stage process. Through qualitative thematic analysis, we identified and coded elements of the archive that provided data about humanistic craft practice. We used the results of this analysis to conduct a secondary analysis of the elements of craft logic and to identify implicit learning theories.
Findings/Results
Our findings revealed that the humanists who received grants from IH engaged the craft logic of the humanities in ways that could be grouped into themes and tended to apply one of seven implicit learning theories to their work. Three implicit learning theories were shared by ten or more grants across the sample: cultivating understanding through analysis, cultivating understanding through imaginative engagement, and cultivating appreciation.
Conclusions/Recommendations
We propose that the analytic approach we describe here helps make the logic underlying humanistic practice explicit and thereby lays the foundation for the development of systematic assessment strategies authentic to programs that deploy common humanistic methods and goals. This can provide humanists and humanities organizations with a better and more explicit understanding of how their own practices work as drivers of human development and to construct an analytic framework for empirically assessing the impact of the humanities on participants and students in humanities programs.
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