Phenomenography

Phenomenographic Research Approach

The object of phenomenography is the variation of human experience of the world. It is grounded in empirical research in education on variation in undergraduate students' learning outcomes and was initially developed during the 1970s by a group of researchers led by Ference Marton at Göteborg University in Sweden. The initial studies tried to answer the question, “Why do students learn different things from reading the same text?” The findings from these studies identified and described a limited number of different ways of understanding the text. They also found a clear relationship between students' ways of understanding the text and their approach to the task of reading the text. The qualitatively different ways of understanding the text were closely linked to the variation in approach to learning (deep vs. surface approach) adopted by the learners. This relationship between understanding and approach implies a principle of intentionality in approaching learning tasks, or broader, as ways of experiencing a particular problem or situation. Since these first studies hundreds of empirical studies have been conducted, mainly in research on learning, but phenomenography has also been used in other areas such as business administration, information literacy, and information behavior research. Geographically, phenomenography has spread from Sweden to Australia and to South East Asia. Currently, a network of phenomenographic researchers have clusters in Göteborg, Sweden; Hong Kong; and Australia.

Variation and Experience

The study of variation implies an interest in capturing various dimensions or facets of a phenomenon as it appears to a number of people. A way of experiencing something constitutes the research unit in phenomenography, which means that the research takes its point of departure in human individuals. A way of [Page 612]experiencing is a particular way of being aware of something and is seen as a relation between a person and the specific phenomenon under study. The concept of a way of experiencing has gradually replaced earlier terms like conception, way of understanding, and way of seeing. In many texts, these terms are used interchangeably to denote this central phenomeno-graphic concept. The study of experience is not exclusive to phenomenography. Phenomenology likewise has human experience as its research object, but although phenomenography is directed at studying and mapping variation in experiences of a phenomenon, phenomenology is concerned with capturing the essence of a phenomenon.

During the last decades, phenomenographers have addressed the question, “What is a way of experiencing a phenomenon?” explored within a framework of the anatomy of awareness. This question implies a shift from empirical toward more theoretical research interests. (This strand of phenomenography has developed into variation theory.) The theoretical and empirical research strands are closely interrelated. One empirically grounded, basic assumption that has an important theoretical implication is that a particular way of experiencing a problem or a situation and a way of acting in relation to that same problem or situation reflect each other. One does not cause the other because experiencing and acting are inseparably intertwined. This intertwining implies that phenomenography does not take a dualistic stance related to differences between word and deed, meaning that ways of experiencing are considered as integrating thought, action, and feeling. Another theoretical feature is the relationship between the ways of experiencing a phenomenon and the categories created to describe them. The former constitutes the research unit, while the categories of description form the outcome of phenomenographic research. Although ways of experiencing derive from individuals, categories of description refer to the collective level—the qualitatively different ways in which a phenomenon may appear to people.

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