The types of research questions suited
Phenomenological researches are primarily used to study areas where there is little prior knowledge, and are particularly suited to illustrate the significance of an experience, and reveal a phenomenon in the lifeworld (Howard 1994, p. 34).
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Phenomenological research also well suited to explore emotional and even intense human experiences. There is an example, Trotman (2006 cited in Merriam 2009, p. 27) inquired imagination and creativity in primary school education. He states that phenomenological research revealed “the ways in which these teachers value and interpret the imaginative experience of their pupils” and “suggested particular challenges that professional educators need to address if imaginative experience is to be legitimated and sustained as a worthwhile educational process”.
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There are more examples of actual phenomenological research in different area:
1) Health-Related Fields
· Annelis, M 2006. ‘Hermeneutic phenomenology: philosophical perspectives and current use in nursing research’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, pp. 705-713. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1996.tb00041.x.
· Oiler, C 1982. ‘The phenomenological approach in nursing research’, Nursing Research, pp. 178-181.
2) Education & Pedagogy
· Amparo, R. F 2013. ‘Gaining Insight into Teaching: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Lived Experience of the Teachers of the Year’, FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1986&context=etd.
· Greenwalt, K.A 2008. ‘Through the camera’s eye: A phenomenological analysis of teacher subjectivity’, Teaching and Teacher Education, pp. 387-399. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2006.11.006.
· Kim, J 2012. ‘Understanding the lived experience of a Sioux Indian male adolescent: Toward the pedagogy of hermeneutical phenomenology in education’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, DOI: 10.111/J.1469-5812.2010.00733.X.
· Vagle, M.D 2011. ‘Critically-oriented pedagogical tact: Learning about and through our compulsions as teacher educators’, Teaching Education, pp. 413-426.
· Vagle, M.D 2011. ‘Lessons in contingent, recursive humility’, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, pp. 362-370.
· Vagle, M.D 2009. ‘Locating and exploring teacher perception in the reflective thinking process’, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, pp. 579-599.
3) Psychology
· Colaizzi, P 1978. ‘Psychological research as the phenomenologist views it’, Existential Phenomenological Alternatives for Psychology, Valle, R & King, M (eds), New York: Oxford University Press.
· Giorgi, A 1970. Psychology as a human science: A phenomenology-based approach. New York: Harper & Row.
4) Across Fields
· Holsyein, J.A & Gubrium, J.F 1998. ‘Phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and interpretive practice’, Strategies of qualitative inquiry, Denzn. N. K & Lincoln. Y. S (eds), Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage.
· Kvale, S 1983. ‘The qualitative research interview: A phenomenological and a hermeneutical mode of understanding’, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, pp. 171-196.
There are some overlaps among phenomenological approach and other qualitative approaches including ethnography, hermeneutics and symbolic interactionism (Lester 1999, p. 1). As Waters (2000) suggested that any methods can be used to gather data as long as the participants can describe their lived experience in the phenomenological research. Various methods can be applied in phenomenologically- based research:
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Interview, which is a typical way while doing phenomenological research, through conversations to gather individuals’ experience, sometime need long-depth interview. Normally, the interview may at least involve five participants is suggested. The unstructured interview is the most popular strategy while doing phenomenological research, and it is unnecessary to ask the same questions in the same way, the aim is to explore as much as you can towards the phenomenon from particular individual (Vagle 2014, p. 79). The interviews always present as an informal and interactive process, and use open-ended questions (Moustakas 2011, p. 11). Researchers should try to be non-directive with their instructions during the interview (Waters 2000).
methods (data collection)
Essential questions in interview:
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·“What is it like to experience ‘p’? ”
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·“What is it like to be ‘p’? ”
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·“What does it mean to have this particular experience?”
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·“What is the experience of ‘p’ like?”
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·“What contexts have influenced your experience of the ‘p’?”
Researchers should encourage the participants to tell their experience, along with their emotions, feelings, thoughts without directing or suggesting participants, but in a way to ask further detail of the experience (Waters 2000).
(a) Interview.
(b) Participant observations, collecting narrative material by close observation.
(c) Analysis of literature, including poetry, novels, stories, plays, biographies, diaries, journals.
(d) Written anecdotes, by asking participants to write their experience down.
(e) Arts-Based methodologies, including photo-elicitation, visual and performance arts.