Phenomenology

[|Phenomenology]
**__ Phenomenological Research __** **__ What is it? __**   ﻿Focus: Phenomenological research focuses on the meaning of several participants’ thoughts and experiences of the world. The purpose of this type of study is to capture the essence or lived experience of the particular individuals. All researchers look to capture the phenomenon that is universal to all participants. For example, what do all working mothers have in common? Design : Needing to describe the essence of a lived phenomenon. Applications: Important to understand several individuals common experiences in order to develop practices or policies or a deeper understanding of the philosophy. **__ Forms of Phenomenology __** **Hermeneutic phenomenology** is research that can be described as rooted in living experiences and interpreting the “texts” of life. Phenomenology becomes hermeneutic when the research takes on a more interpretive approach. Basically this form of research looks to seek meaning through the form of text, which can include multimedia data. EXAMPLE: What types of themes emerge from reading blogs about autistic individuals and what type of messages are they trying to convey? **Transcendental phenomenology** is coined from Moustaka (1994) and focuses on discovering the experiences of the participants. This form focuses on the essential meaning of the participants’ reactions to a common phenomenon. EXAMPLE: What are the social reactions to having an IEP that affect the emotional functioning of special education students. **Existential phenomenology** this form is based on philosophy that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness. The nature and perception of reality allows the researchers to form their epistemologies ( What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? What do people know? How do we know what we know?) EXAMPLE: How do addicts perceive the effects of their addictions? ** Experts ** Dr. Clark Moustakas is a leader in the area of phenomenological research. He helped establish the Association for Humanistic Psychology and the Journal for Humanistic Psychology. He is the author of numerous books and articles on humanistic psychology, education and human science research. Heidegger who argued that every form of human awareness is interpretive and would include art, poetry, language, thinking and dwelling can be experienced in hermeneutic phenomenology. Paul Ricour argues that meaning must be studied in order to be interpreted. Ricour’s hermeneutic phenomenology states that the meanings of human nature can be examined through myths, arts, religion and language. ** Procedures, Methods & Validity ** Clusters of meanings: to group statements together with the ultimate goal being to form relationships and develop themes. Horizonalization: is to list every statement that is relevant to the topic. The researcher writes a description of the after the text and looks to investigate how the phenomenon was experienced by the participants. Open-ended interview process: the researcher asks questions that will allow participants to give the most detailed answers. Textural – Structural synthesis; this final step involves integrating the entire data collection in order to capture the meanings and essence of the experience. Bracketing- It is common practice in phenomenological research for researchers to write about their own experiences of the phenomenon or to be interviewed by a colleague in order to "bracket" their experiences prior to interviewing others (Merriam, 2009). Imaginative variation- The viewing of the data from various perspectives; seeing different things from different angles. ** Academic value ** The importance of phenomenological research in education is important because this type of research explains the experiences of shared groups. Shared groups are abundant in school settings and can offer an in-depth look at the social dynamics of the school environment. A Phenomenological Research Design Illustrated--This is an EXCELLENT resource that details the process for this type of study. Groenewald, T. (2004). A phenomenological research design illustrated. International Journalof Qualitative Methods, 3(1). Article 4. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/3_1/pdf/groenewald.pdf Further reading Moustakas, C. (1994). //Phenomenological research methods.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ** **** .pdf ** Merriam, S.B. (2009). //Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation.// San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. [|http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/grizzly/432/rra3.htm#phenomenology] [|http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/]

Referring links: [|(u03a1) Five Approaches to Qualitative Research]