Phenomenography
Phenomenography is a qualitative research methodology that investigates the qualitatively different ways in which people experience something or think about something (Bowden et al., 1997; Ashworth & Lucas, 1998). Phenomenography aims at studying the variation of ways people understand phenomena in the world. In simpler terms, phenomenography explores the variation in how different people conceive of learning experiences (Akerlind, 2005). Those who design and deliver professional learning can use empirical research rather than anecdotal evidence to inform the development and delivery of meaningful professional learning experiences.
Phenomenography: GO-GN Insights
Penny Bentley used phenomenography to explore the experience of professional learning through open education (PLOE) from the perspective of teachers as adult learners. The study was conducted to inform the design and delivery of meaningful professional learning to other teachers seeking to learn about STEM education on the open Web.
“Phenomenography is not a widely used methodology. There is variation in literature on phenomenography around aspects of theory, methodology and method. This made it difficult for me, as a novice, solo researcher to comprehend and discuss with my supervisors who are not experts in the field. It is time consuming to conduct phenomenographic data analysis on a huge amount of data.
“I wanted to explore, understand and describe the different ways teachers experienced PLOE, from their perspective. This was an interpretive activity, situating my research in the interpretive paradigm. Also, describing the perspectives of teachers, in terms of what PLOE means to them, was research of a qualitative nature. However, there are a range of methodologies within the interpretive paradigm, such as ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology and phenomenography.”
In order to justify my choice for this study I needed to consider the differences between these methodologies. I was not studying the culture of a group of teachers using the open Web to learn about STEM education (ethnography), although culture may be an aspect of how the phenomenon of PLOE is experienced. Nor was I generating a theory to explain the cause of social processes and interactions when teachers engaged in PLOE (grounded theory), although I was interested in understanding and describing the different ways these processes and interactions are experienced. Even though human experience is the focus of phenomenology and phenomenography, it is the phenomenographic focus on variation of experience, rather the focus on essence of experience made by phenomenologists, that made a difference to which methodology and methods I chose.
“Phenomenography enables me to describe variation in the lived experiences of PLOE from the perspective of teachers experiencing this phenomenon. This is important since much of the literature on professional learning does not include the different views of teachers, but