Phenomenology

Kirsten Casey
Anne Arundel Community College
 Introduction
 Originated by philosophers such as
Husserl, Schutz and Merleu-Ponty

 A framework for providing a qualitative

understanding of human experience

 Focuses on the meaning of human

experiences (phenomenon)
 Research Questions
 What is the essential meaning of an
experience?
 That which it is, and without which it could
not be (van Manen)

 For example:
 What is the essence of being a mother?
 What is the essential structure of a caring
nurse-client interaction ?
 Goal

To produce a brief statement that

succinctly evokes the phenomenon
 Assumptions
 Phenomenologists assume that human
experience is inherently subjective
 Within these subjective experiences are
essential structures that characterize
the experience
 The way to gain access to these
structures is through description of
experiences
Stages in a Phenomenological Study

 Researcher chooses phenomenon and

selects appropriate models,
frameworks, or theories to guide data
collection
 Participants interviewed; researcher
brackets own experiences.
 A description is written that fully
describes the experience.
Stages in a Phenomenological Study

 Descriptions of the participants’

experiences (possibly including
researcher) are reduced to themes
 These themes are reduced to a
statement that summarizes the
essential meaning
 Researcher returns to participants to
check validity of analysis
 Role of Researcher
 Researcher’s own experiences with a
phenomenon are included as a part of
the study.
 Since the essence is universal, meaning
must be true for researcher as well as
participants
 Researcher

Participant 1 Participant 2
Characteristics of Phenomenology

 Use of subjective data to describe an

objective truth
 Researcher’s own experiences
integrated into the study
 Focus on finding the common thread in
phenomenon
Phenomenology is useful when …

 researcher wants to understand human

experience
 the goal is to understand a universal
meaning of an experience
 the reduction of context specific
information to a more general
understanding of the phenomenon is
desired
Phenomenology is useful when …

 the researcher is willing to become

closely entwined with the research
Phenomenology is not useful for

 understanding differences in students

performance
 evaluating the effectiveness of
particular curricular change
 describing the the implementation of a
curricular change
 answering questions about the cognitive
domain (misconceptions, spatial ability)
When would it be useful in
chemistry education?
 Laboratory
 A part of the curriculum that is valued
for the experience it provides students
 There is disagreement about the
meaning of the laboratory
 An experience we share with our
students
 Finding a common essence might lend
ammunition for reform efforts