Phenomenology

Phenomenology
Is not a unified position (e.g., Husserl,
Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Heidegger)
A school of philosophical thought that
underpins all of QL research.
Emphasis on experience and interpretation
Also is a set of tools

Essence
Focus of the study is on the essence or
structure of an experience (phenomenon)
(Merriam).
The task of the phenomenologist is to depict this
essence or basic structure of experience
(Merriam).
The assumption of essence, like the
ethnographers assumption that culture exists and
is important, becomes the defining characteristic
of a purely phenomenological study (Merriam, p.
15 quote from Patton, p 70).
Further assumptions
A philosophy without presuppositions suspend
all judgments about what is real.
Intentionality of consciousness consciousness is
always directed toward an object, reality of an
object is then related to ones consciousness of it.
Refusal of the subject-object dichotomy without
meaning by subject, no reality of object (Creswell,
1998).
Phenomenologists . . .
insist on careful description of ordinary
conscious experience of everyday life (the
life-world)a description of things (the
essential structures of consciousness) as
one experiences them (Schwandt, 2001, p.
191).
Seek invariant structures (Creswell, 1998).

What do we experience?
include perception (hearing, seeing, etc.),
believing, remembering, deciding, feeling,
judging, evaluating, and all experiences of
bodily action. Phenomenological
descriptions of such things are possible
only by turning from things to their
meaning, from what is to the nature of what
is (Schwandt, 2001, p. 191).
Life-world
the everyday world (Lebenswelt) is the intersubjective
world of human experience and social action; it is the world
of commonsense knowledge of everyday life (Schwandt,
2001, p. 147).
is constituted by the thoughts and acts of individuals and
the social expressions of those thoughts and acts (e.g.,
laws, institutions). The life-world (and its phenomena) is
regarded as the primary object for study by the human
sciences. Describing what the life-world consists ofthat
is, the structures of experience and the principles and
concepts that give form and meaning to the life-worldhas
been the project of phenomenology (p. 147).
AIMS
In qualitative research, phenomenology aims to
identify and describe the subjective experience of
respondents. It is a matter of studying everyday
experience from the point of view of the subject,
and it shuns critical evaluation of forms of social
life (Schwandt, 2001, p. 192).
Understanding of an event from the point of view
of the participant (Barritt, et al., p. 2)
CHALLEGE
The challenge facing the human science
researcher is to describe things in themselves, to
permit what is before one to enter consciousness
and be understood in its meanings and essences
in the light of intuition and self-reflection. The
process involves a blending of what is really
present with what is imagined as present from the
vantage point of possible meanings; thus a unit of
the real and the idea (Merriam, p. 17, quote from
Moustakas).
How to . . .
Reduce the phenomenon by bracketing
or suspending . . . the natural attitude,
which is the everyday assumption of the
independent existence of what is perceived
and thought about (Schwandt, 2001, p.
192).
How to . . .
Understand philosophical perspectives
(Creswell).
Must have an intuitive grasp of the
phenomenon (Merriam).
Writes research questions that explore the
lived experiences of individuals (Creswell).
Collects data from individual who have
experienced the phenomena (Creswell),
investigating several instances to gain a real
sense of the essence (Merriam).
How to . . .
In analysis, divide statements, look for clusters of
meanings, make general descriptions textural
description of what was experienced and structured
description of how it was experienced (Creswell),
seeking to understand relationships among several
essences (Merriam).
In this, systematically explore The phenomena not
only in the sense of what appears, whether
particulars or general essences, but also of the way
in which things appear (Merriam, p. 16, quote from
Spiegelberg)

Barritt, et al. (1984)
Lived experience playing games
Life-world the everyday world in which
games are played

Phenomenography
Used (initially, mid 50s) to distinguish
among schools of psychopathological
research.
a descriptive recording of immediate
subjective experience as reported
(Sonneman, 1954, p. 344 at
http://www.ped.gu.se/biorn/phgraph/civil/m
ain/firstidea.html)
Phenomenography
has been used to investigate variation in ways of
seeing or experiencing phenomena associated
with learning (Pham, et al., 2005, p. 218).
investigate the collective consciousness of
research communities (p. 218).
It allows us to examine variation in the internal
relation between researchers and aspects of their
world, investigating critical differences in how they
are aware of some aspects of their world, and
also in how that aspect of the world appears to
them (p. 218).
Phan, Bruce, & Stoodley (2005)
Life-world the objects and territories of IT
Lived experience how the experience of
IT researchers constitutes the life-world.