Phenomenology as a Potential Methodology for Subjective Knowing in Science Education Research

Abstract

This paper charts the journey that led to the author's discovery of phenomenology as a potential research methodology in the field of science education, and describes the impact on his own thinking and approach of his encounters with the work of Husserl and Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Van Manen. Drawing on this theoretical framework, the author argues that, as a methodology for investigating scientific thinking in relation to life experience, learning and curriculum design, phenomenology not only provides a means of accessing subjective knowing and pure perception, but is sufficiently rigorous and systematic to represent the lifeworld experiences of research participants with a high degree of accuracy. In the process, he highlights the uniqueness and value of phenomenology in relation to quantitative and other qualitative research methods. The aim of this paper is to inspire insight into the value in science education research of using a methodology that fosters a deeper understanding of both teachers' and learners' lived experience of the scientific world. The challenge to science specialists, whether educators or researchers, would be to shift their default mode of understanding from the object pole to the ego pole, from the physical object to the human subject, from the observable and measurable to the lived as the true source of human knowledge.

Youths in Gangs on the Cape Flats: If Not in Gangs, Then What?

“…The aim was to develop a collective story through an interpretive framework that is embedded in the social context (Lapan, Quartaroli & Riemer, 2012). A phenomenological research design was used to guide the choices regarding the identification of sources and data to be included and the method of analysis (Koopman, 2015). The phenomenological design supported the inductive qualitative research approach, as it contributes to developing new meanings of how people understand their lived experiences, and how they structure their understanding of them (Bliss, 2016).…”

Investigation of Preschool Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Scientific Knowledge through Metaphor

“…This study, which aims to reveal the deep and detailed thoughts of preschool preservice teachers toward the concept of scientific knowledge, adopted the phenomenology study design. Phenomenology is a research design focusing on the meanings that people derive from their own life experiences or where the researchers try to derive the meaning from the other people's life experiences (Koopman, 2015).…”

Critical skills and knowledge to succeed in the township liquor retail industry

“…The study was carried out using the qualitative phenomenological research design. Willis (2002, as cited by Koopman, 2015:3) points out "the aim of phenomenological research is to arrive at an accurate understanding and description of knowing the moments as they appear in the consciousness of individuals. "…”