Hermeneutic Approaches to Learning Methodology

A methodology in theory differs from a methodology in practice. Consequently, texts describing methodologies contain no single prescriptive meaning. Learning to use a methodology is therefore a hermeneutic problem insofar as the practitioner’s task is to appropriate meaning from the text by interpreting it according to contexts arising from particular situations. the interpretation of methodologies can therefore be understood in terms of the contingent application of practitioners’ expertise in modelling information systems. the purpose of this paper is to argue that the application of expertise arises from practice and that a methodology should assist in elucidating this process. We describe this in terms of Multiview methodology. We conclude by proposing further research to develop explicit guidelines for expressing and representing methodology since these could assist practitioners in thinking about their expertise by providing theoretical frameworks for its expression. As such, resulting frameworks function as explicit links between theory and practice and so represent the potential for greater understanding of the relationship between methodological theory and its application.