Phenomenology text draft

This exploratory research concerns itself with the experiences of school teachers collaboratively planning and delivering digital accessibility awareness education. The aim is to offer some insight into the types of support teachers might need in their everyday practice if this topic were to be added to the curriculum. Phenomenology is an approach that takes fully into account complex multiple realities and the social construction of reality and has proved popular in the social sciences (Creswell, 2013; Denscombe, 1998), useful for research in education and wanting to understand the thinking of teachers and pupils (Crotty, 1998; Van Manen, 1990; Denscombe, 1998; Tesch, 1988) and is also appropriate to explore a single concept or idea such as the idea of professional growth (Creswell, 2013). It captures the essence of human experience (Heidegger, 1962) and the lived experience of human beings in the life world (Husserl, 1970) such as that of teachers.

Phenomenology has several schools of thought…. 

pertinent to this research is capturing the essence of the experience of teachers (Heidegger, 1962).

Phenomenology is associated with humanistic research that uses qualitative methods and places special emphasis on individual views and personal human experiences (Crotty, 1998; Blaikie, 1993). It is not primarily concerned with explaining causes, offering explanations or analysis (Moustakas, 1994), but to describe a rich description of how things are experienced by those involved (Denscombe, 1998) and stems from a philosophical focus on the nature of being in the world (Heidegger, 1962). In line with working closely with a group of teachers phenomenology accepts that things can be seen in different ways by different people, at different times in different circumstances, and that each alternative version needs to be recognised in its own right (Denscombe, 1998; p.79). This is reflective of the intentions of this research to conduct iterations of teaching the same lessons by a small group of different teachers.

One key characteristic of this phenomenological approach  is its emphasis on describing these authentic experiences in detail to depict and capture the essence of what is happening spoken from the point of view or perspective of the subject and how people understand it in everyday terms (Crotty, 1998) and from the participants version in their own words (Denscombe, 1998). This detail helps to deal with the complexities of the social world and offer a clearer picture of what exists at a more general level across the experiences of all participants. It captures the importance of the mundane and the trivial which often gets missed, yet could prove useful and significant to understanding the nuances and intricacies of everyday teaching practice. Describing experiences and events as they unfold, lays bare the everyday experiences that people can relate to (Denscombe, 1998) and makes the research relatable to other teachers who are the primary audience for this study.

These essential qualities help to describe what all participants have in common and then from these descriptions capture the universal essence of the experience (Creswell, 2013) and a grasp of the very nature of the thing being explored (Van Manen, 1990; p.177). By teasing out any joint commonalities of successes or challenges these can then be used to inform a set of recommendations and the support needed in the everyday practice to teach digital accessibility awareness, which is the ultimate goal of this research.

Phenomenology is ideally suited to small scale research. It is recommended that the number of participants is…….

In this study the research aims to work with a minimum of three teachers to explore, develop and pilot pedagogical ideas for teaching and learning activities and to identify shared ways of interpreting that experience.

It needs to be acknowledged that phenomenology research comes with its criticisms as lacking in the more scientific rigour and objectivity of measurement and analysis, this is because of its broad descriptive focus rather than numerical data or methods that could be replicated or generalised findings (Denscombe, 1998). The primary objective is to offer subjective accounts to help to understand the very nature of the everyday social world. Some also might be critical of research that deals with the trivial and mundane and interpret this as unimportant compared to the bigger issues that could inform policy. However to mitigate this argument this research aims to be exploratory, to act as a guide into everyday insights of the teachers experience and to identify the types of everyday support needed in planning and delivering teaching.

Although this study will be guided by a pedagogical framework to organise the experiences, the research will follow the principles of a phenomenological study to follow, record and analysis the experiences of teachers. 

Bracketing

Husserl - objective researcher 

Heidegger - researcher can’t be objective, because they design and interpret research (Creswell, 2013, Denscombe, 1998).

The type of research problem best suited for phenomenology is one where it is important to understand several individuals’ common or shared experiences of a phenomenon (Creswell, 2013).

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