Reflections on readings for 9/2 (Phenomenology)

Reflections on readings for 9/2 (Phenomenology)
Jackie Clark

This weeks readings were helpful in understanding more about Phenomenology and interviewing. I am not sure if the order was intentional, but I read them that way, and it seemed intentional. Beginning with van Manen was good. His writing style is both heady and conversational to me. I felt like the piece was closer to philosophy in content, but not without some concrete examples and good illustrations of his point. Although intended for a certain audience, there was nothing in the content that could not be applied to my work. His discussion of the word geist and it's connections to German root words describing natural and human science was interesting. I often used the word zeitgeist in discussions of movements in the art world and larger contemporary national conversations. Just as with the German terms used in his piece, there is no good English translation. This is a great example of the power of language as a way of describing the reality around us. He goes on to describe the "lifeworld" and the reflective discipline of writing which is key to phenomenological research. These points were helpful in really deeply describing the essence of the work, and the importance of you as the instrument being reflective. It's such a departure from qualitative work in this way, and really a way of thinking more mindfully. I feel like it's a skill that will get better with practice and will take time to be comfortable with as a researcher. Finally, I thought the points around accurately and carefully describing the experience of a real person were thought provoking. You, as the researcher, are tasked with interpreting the experience of another, and therefore cannot avoid some amount of interpretation. You must carefully do your best to describe the experience deeply and richly, so the reader really gets a picture of person and their experience.

After thinking deeply and philosophically in van Manen's work, DeMarris's piece was much more straight forward and directive. I did appreciate the clear thoughts on interviewing, and things to think about when using this type of method to gather data. Again, themes around rich and textural description are clearly covered, and thinking about how to discover meaning in someone's lived experience. The sections on developing your interview questions were very helpful, and there is a lot to think through when doing so. I can see how this work really is an art, and getting good at doing interviews just takes practice, reflection, revision, and more practice.

Finally, the article by Beck was helpful to me as a scholarly piece using phenomenology. Although parts of it were above my head, I think I understood the structure and way it was organized. I know that reading articles in my own field using this methodology will be helpful, and I just need to find some. I wish you could search my research method. But, since I am deep in research for my publishable paper right now, I am sure I will find some. Qualitative research is very popular in Student Affairs scholarship, and our journals do a pretty good job of balance in what they publish.

My one side observation this week was that our research traditions are very rooted in European or Anglo philosophy. I understand this and the clear connections from the enlightenment, but I wonder how researchers feel about this in other countries, be they in Asia, Africa, South America etc....are there other ways of doing qual research that are grounded in different history and philosophy?