hermeneutic phenomenology

8/11/2019 Hermeneutic Phenomenology

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Hermeneutic Phenomenology

as a Research Method

Norm Friesen

Oulu, May 27, 2009


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Thompson Rivers University

Open Learning

16,000 students a year52 degree, diploma

and certificate programs

400+ courses offered


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Overview

What is Phenomenology (and hermeneutics)?

Detachment versus involvement in research

Knowledge as mood (or Befindlichkeit)

Knowledge and language (Hermeneutics)

Communication as shared mood (atmosphere orMitbefindlichkeit)

The Utrecht School; writing and gathering data

Phenomenological writing and the anecdote

Understanding validity in phenomenology


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Source of

this Account

Chapter 6: Experiential

E-Learning Evidence:

Its Character and

Consequences

Published by Peter

Lang, 2009

Emphasis on computer

technology & Internet


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What is Phenomenology?

an ongoing philosophical tradition (e.g. Derrida,1976; Rorty, 1991);

as the basis for alternative approaches to artificialintelligence (or "AI");

as a theory of notable interest in software design(e.g., Winograd and Flores, 1986; Dourish, 2003);

as a set of research methods used in education,nursing, psychology and other professionalhuman practices (Moustakas, 1994; Giorgi, 2006;van Manen, 2007).

the study of experience (as it is lived)


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Computer Technology & Philosophy

"Technology at present...covert philosophy; thepoint is to make it openly philosophical" (1997, p.240).

The covert philosophy of computers is rooted inlayers of positivistic Western philosophicaltraditionfrom Descartes through Turing torecent discussions of Artificial Intelligence.

by its very nature as artifact and mechanism, thecomputer itself stands as a kind of "existenceproof" for the rationalistic core of this tradition.


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Hubert Dreyfus: Detached, Reflective

Stance

According to the philosophical tradition, whetherrationalist or empiricist, it is only by means ofdetached contemplation that we discover reality.

From Plato's theoretical dialectic, which turns themind away from the everyday world of "shadows,"to Descartes's preparation for philosophy byshutting himself up in a warm room where he is

free from involvement and passion...philosophershave supposed that only by withdrawing fromeveryday practical concerns before describingthings and people can they discover how things

really are. (1991, p. 6)


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Lifeworld Immersion

"Detached contemplation can be illuminating, butit also obscures the phenomena themselves byisolating and categorizing them... [S]ocial

activity," on the other hand, is "the ultimatefoundation of intelligibility, and even ofexistence" (Winograd & Flores 1986, pp. 32, 33).

We are caught up in the world and we do not

succeed in extricating ourselves from it in orderto achieve consciousness of it" (Merleau-Ponty,1962, p. 5).


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Example

As I click on the titles of the postings in my onlinecourse, I am struck by the eloquence with which thesemessages are written: "The creatures in our woods arepreparing for winter. Outside the window next to mycomputer, I see the birds gathering around our bird-feeder. . ." This is apparently written by a womannamed Maria from Wisconsin. From Manchester,England, someone named Lorna says, "Autumn is myfavorite season because it holds a deep secret that I

hope to unravel. . . ." And from Hong Kong, JamesWong writes "The persistent heat of summer is slowlydissipating, and the rhythms of the city are becomingmore even and measured..."


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Example, continued

These messages continue in the way they

begin: Beautiful, well-written, and evocative.

But I find myself wondering: "Who are these

people? How can they be so eloquent,

without even trying, it seems? How do they

come up with such beautiful messages?"

(Friesen, 2003, p. 3)


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Gadamer, Wittgenstein

"Long before we understand ourselves throughthe process of self-examination, we understandourselves in a self-evident way in the family,

society and state in which we live" (Gadamer,1989, p. 278).

"'Does a child believe that milk exists? Does a catknow that a mouse exists?'... 'Are we to say that

the knowledge that there are physical objectscomes very early or very late?' (Wittgenstein,1969, p. 63e).


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Soentgen

[It] is the tired person, rather than the person whofresh and wide-awake who is the most sensitive toflows and atmospheres. Of course, there are manyforms of tiredness, such as tense or nervous

exhaustion which can make one weak, and can preventsleep. But our concern here is with a more benevolentform of tiredness, one that slackens the whole bodywithout leaving any knots or points of tensionwhatever. In this kind of tiredness, the body comes to

its own, the breath flows steadily and independently.[...] This kind of tiredness not only increases emotionalalertness, it also boosts one's capability for empathicembodied communication. (Soentgen, 1998, p. 75;translated by the author)


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Gadamer on Language & Experience

Experience is not wordless to begin with,subsequently becoming an object of reflection bybeing named, by being subsumed under auniversality of the word. Rather, experience of

itself seeks and finds words that express it. (1989,p. 417)

language has no independent life apart fromthe world that comes to language within it. Not

only is the world worldonly insofar as it comesinto language, but language, too, has its realbeing only in the fact that the world is presentedin it. (Gadamer, 1989, p. 440)


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Max van ManenUtrecht School

The Utrecht School consisted of an assortment

of phenomenologically oriented psychologists,

educators, pedagogues, pediatricians,

sociologists, criminologists, jurists,

psychiatrists, and other medical doctors, who

formed a more or less close association of like-

minded academics. (Levering & van Manen,2003, p. 278)


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Anecdote - Example 2

"1 new message in your inbox"! A messagebox pops up and my computer chimes softly. Aquick glance shows that it's from a friend whoalso happens to be in an online class I'mtaking. It seems a bit impersonal and vague,but I'm glad to hear from her, and I put downmy morning cup of coffee to write a reply. I tellher that I enjoy the class we're both taking, butthat I'm finding the subject matter kind oflame. Later in the day, I check my email again,and am surprised to see that I have received amessage from myself!


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AnecdoteExample 2, cont

I click on it only to see that it is the message I

earlier sent to my friend. I feel an

embarrassed blush as I realize what I have

done: I've sent my message to everyone in the

class, including the instructor! The message

that I originally replied to was actually one

that my friend sent to our class email list! Ifeel like an idiot! (adapted from: Friesen,

2007, p. 1)


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van Manen on Wonder

shatter the taken-for-grantedness of our

everyday reality. Wonder [in this sense] is the

unwilled willingness to meet what is utterly

strange in what is most familiar. It is the

willingness to step back and let things speak

to us, a passive receptivity to let the things of

the world present themselves in their ownterms. (van Manen, 2002)


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van Manen on Writing and Re-Writing

share their views of the way the description

does or does not resonate with their

experiences. Themes and insights can thus be

examined, articulated, re-interpreted,

omitted, added, or reformulated. And the

phenomenological research text under

discussion can be read aloud to highlight itsvocative dimensions. (2002)


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Hermeneutic Phenomenology &

Bildung as Relational Pedagogy Pedagogy requires a phenomenological sensitivity to

lived experience (children's realities and lifeworlds).

Pedagogy requires a hermeneutic ability to make

interpretive sense of the phenomena of thelifeworld in order to see the pedagogic significance

of situations and relations of living with children. And

pedagogy requires a way with language in order to

allow the research prosess of textual reflection tocontribute to one's pedagogical thoughtfulness and

tact (van Manen 1991,2).


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Pedagogy

In the pedagogical relation the adult is directed

toward the child

sensitive to the lifeworld of the child (which is

unknowable)

other-oriented

asymmetricalone in which the teacher seeks

to be open to or to draw out the situation and

concerns of the other


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PedagogyIs non-specialized; is not a question of specialized

diagnoses, applying highly specialized categories and

courses of action:

Cultivation of an atmosphere or tone that is openand affirming of the other

Engage in a relation with the student that has a

distinct personal quality: as who you are, and who he

or she is as a person, not as a professional role.

The pedagogical relation comes to an end

hermeneutic phenomenology

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