David Garner (University of the Arts London)
Photography and tacit knowledge

Experienced art and design practitioners may find that their skills defy explanation, making it difficult for students to grasp what there is to learn. This relates to their ‘tacit knowledge’ (Polanyi, 1967) and leads to a ‘pedagogy of ambiguity’ (Austerlitz et al., 2008). This issue of ambiguity is explored by comparing Polanyi’s views with accounts from Dreyfus (2013) and McDowell (2013) on the role of concepts in expert activity. Special attention is paid to McDowell’s conceptualism as a basis for an account of tacit knowledge in photography that avoids ambiguity in any educationally problematic sense.

David Garner is Senior Lecturer at the University of the Arts London (UAL), specialising in teaching photography and allied skills with first year undergraduates. His 10 years of teaching experience encompasses a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University, where he has also conducted a number of educational research projects. David is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the UCL Institute of Education.