I appreciate this opportunity to join Jonathan Smith in his rebuttal to my discussion of the meaning and method of his interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Different forms of inquiry make ...unique contributions to our understanding of professional practices of psychology, education, pedagogy, nursing, medicine, and other health sciences. So, it should be worthwhile to understand the nature of these potential contributions and their methods. But what if some methods are misnamed, misconstrued, or misdirected? Does it matter? Perhaps or perhaps only academically. I am happy to engage in this rejoinder with Jonathan Smith—certainly there is merit in dialogue and discussions surrounding our understandings of phenomenology as a method for human science research. In addition, I feel collegial amity for Jonathan and his interest in phenomenology and willingness to engage in conversation. In this rejoinder, I will express my views of IPA and Jonathan’s rebuttal in some brief detail and with considered care.
When looking through phenomenology articles in human science and philosophy journals, we may be excused to get the impression that they offer an inconsistent array of phenomenology publications. In ...this article, we describe three simple but helpful distinctions for determining some order: first, the great foundational publications; second, exegetical publications in the wake of the great works; and third, phenomenological studies done directly on phenomena. Our aim in this article is not to lay claim to phenomenology as a label but rather to discuss how “doing phenomenology directly on the phenomena and the things” means taking up a certain attitude and practicing an attentive awareness to the things of the world as we live and experience them. We propose that engaging in philosophical exegesis and argumentation is not very helpful for analyzing and explicating originary meanings of experiential phenomena. And we show how doing phenomenology directly on the things can be facilitated by a phenomenologically inspired interpretive attitude as well as by a sensitive talent for employing phenomenological examples.
This rebuttal responds to the article “Getting it quite wrong” (published in this journal issue of QHR). My work is described as “amassing experiential descriptions,” simply aiming to “reproduce the ...original experience unaltered,” naively claiming “that the fundamental question of phenomenology is to understand what it is like to have this or that experience” and other such injudicious points. I take issue with these claims. Husserl is quoted as supportively stating that “phenomenology was from the beginning never supposed to be anything except the path to a radically genuine ‘strictly scientific metaphysics.’” I will show with textual examples that the presented view of phenomenology is too limited and one sided.
Writing in the Dark van Manen, Max
2002, 20160616, 2003, 2016-06-16, 2016-06-14
eBook
Bestselling author Max van Manen's Writing in the Dark brings together a wide range of studies of relevance to qualitative researchers and professional practitioners. Each of the sixteen original ...chapters by accomplished scholars serves as an example of how a different kind of human experience may be explored, and of how the methods used for investigating phenomena may contribute to the process of human understanding. Van Manen provides the opening and closing chapters for the book, and also an introduction to each selection. This book is a valuable and rich resource for people who would like to learn more about phenomenological reflection and writing.Van Manen and his contributing authors:-Show how the challenge of doing qualitative research can be pursued through the process of inquiry, reflection and writing-Are from a variety of fields such as education, health sciences, psychology, arts and design, communication technology, and religious studies-Include numerous recognizable human experiences including common ones, forgotten ones, and ritualized ones
Phenomenology of Practice Manen, Max van
Phenomenology & practice,
10/2007, Volume:
1, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Phenomenology of practice is formative of sensitive practice, issuing from the pathic power of phenomenological reflections. Pathic knowing inheres in the sense and sensuality of our practical ...actions, in encounters with others and in the ways that our bodies are responsive to the things of our world and to the situations and relations in which we find ourselves. Phenomenology of practice is an ethical corrective of the technological and calculative modalities of contemporary life. It finds its source and impetus in practical phenomenologies of reading and writing that open up possibilities for creating formative relations between being and acting, self and other, interiorities and exteriorities, between who we are and how we act.
Phenomenology, peekaboo, and play are notions that may not tempt the reader to take a paper very seriously. Phenomenology is a philosophical form of qualitative research that is guided more often by ...the fortuitous serendipity of contemplative insights than by the rationality of reproducible social science procedures. Peekaboo is an infant game of the eyes that hardly seems worth addressing in a self-respectful research journal, and the topic of play is equally suspect to scientists for whom the cheerful idleness of play is the opposite of the seriousness and purposiveness of work or labor. However, here I will propose that (a) peekaboo may give us inceptual insights into the phenomenon of eye contact; (b) idle play is not just a counter concept of seriousness and work, but a phenomenon in its own right; (3) phenomenology is a serendipitous form of research that is philosophic and may give us compelling insights into the lived meanings of quotidian experiences in our lives, and (d) the mythological figure of Kairos speaks to the enigma of our humanness and provides an understanding of time as the discontinuous instant of the now and of the phenomenological method as intuitive grasping of meaning. Phenomenological writing is rarely easy and yet it can be highly satisfying in its results. I aim to show that meaningful insights are gained through a patient and attentively alert surrender to Kairos time and serendipitous moments.
In this article, I try to think through the question, “What distinguishes phenomenology in its original sense?” My intent is to focus on the project and methodology of phenomenology in a manner that ...is not overly technical and that may help others to further elaborate on or question the singular features that make phenomenology into a unique qualitative form of inquiry. I pay special attention to the notion of “lived” in the phenomenological term “lived experience” to demonstrate its critical role and significance for understanding phenomenological reflection, meaning, analysis, and insights. I also attend to the kind of experiential material that is needed to focus on a genuine phenomenological question that should guide any specific research project. Heidegger, van den Berg, and Marion provide some poignant exemplars of the use of narrative “examples” in phenomenological explorations of the phenomena of “boredom,” “conversation,” and “the meaningful look in eye-contact.” Only what is given or what gives itself in lived experience (or conscious awareness) are proper phenomenological “data” or “givens,” but these givens are not to be confused with data material that can be coded, sorted, abstracted, and accordingly analyzed in some “systematic” manner. The latter approach to experiential research may be appropriate and worthwhile for various types of qualitative inquiry but not for phenomenology in its original sense. Finally, I use the mythical figure of Kairos to show that the famous phenomenological couplet of the epoché-reduction aims for phenomenological insights that require experiential analysis and attentive (but serendipitous) methodical inquiry practices.
The Tone of Teaching van Manen, Max
2002, 20160616, 2016, 2003, 2016-06-16, 2016-06-14
eBook
In the revised and updated second edition of The Tone of Teaching, bestselling author Max van Manen defines sound pedagogy as the ability to distinguish effectively between what is appropriate, and ...what is less appropriate in our communications and dealings with children and young people as parents and educators. The author: -Shows how tactful educators develop a caring attentiveness to the unique; to the uniqueness of children, and to the uniqueness of their individual lives-Describes how this "tone" of teaching can be sustained by the cultivation of a certain kind of seeing, listening, and responding to each child in each particular situation-Offers practical insights for both educators and parents
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