Phenomenography in the "Lived" Context of Parental Learning. (5th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Go, Luis; Pang, Ming Fai
• Is Part Of: International journal of qualitative methods. Volume 20(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-05-05
• Subjects: phenomenography -- context -- parent education; Qualitative research -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; Qualitative Research -- Periodicals; Qualitative research; Social sciences -- Philosophy; Social sciences -- Research; Periodicals; 300.72
• DOI: 10.1177/16094069211016160
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1609-4069

Abstract

Phenomenography is a qualitative research methodology that is often adopted by researchers to investigate people's lived experience of the phenomena around them. Within the phenomenographic research tradition, there has been much discussion of the influence of the context on the phenomenon under study. Time and again, both phenomenographers and critics of phenomenography have stressed the importance of the researcher being mindful of the context when using phenomenography as a research methodology. In this paper, two phenomenographic studies of the learning of adults under the context of parental learning are reported. We attempt to illuminate empirically the consequences of ignoring the cautionary advice about context in the pilot study and contrast its outcomes with the quality of the research results of the subsequent main study that heeded the advice. It is important to clearly delimit the phenomenon in question by taking careful consideration of the relevant context, as this ensures that phenomenography is conducted on the same, target phenomenon, rather than on different phenomena.