Existpracticebased

Existpracticebased is a conceptual framework and methodological approach that integrates existential inquiry with practice-based learning and research. It investigates how human existence, meaning, and agency intersect with professional practice, and how situated practice can reveal and shape knowledge about lived experience. The term blends elements of existential thought with practice-based inquiry, and has been used in education, social sciences, health, and design research to address the relationship between being and doing.

Origins and scope: Coined by scholars seeking to link philosophical concerns with practical inquiry, existpracticebased emphasizes that practice is not only a vehicle for knowledge but also a site where questions of existence arise and are negotiated.

Core principles: existential awareness guides inquiry; practice is the primary site of knowledge production; reflection and critique accompany action; knowledge is co-created with participants; ethical responsibility, care, and reflexivity are central.

Methodology: researchers use mixed methods, including reflective journaling, in-depth interviews, co-design workshops, ethnography, and phenomenological analysis, to trace how existential concerns inform practice and how practice reshapes personal and collective understanding.

Applications: in education, it fosters learning that connects student experience with professional aims; in healthcare and social work, it centers patient and client meaning; in design, it foregrounds user existence; in community development, it supports participatory inquiry.

Criticisms: potential ambiguity and difficulty in operationalizing existential concepts; demands on researcher reflexivity; challenges in establishing rigorous criteria for validity without losing depth.

See also: practice-based research, existentialism, reflective practice.