LESSON 7 Qualitative Topic 11 CLO4: Conduct a qualitative

Research Approach 4: research study and write a

Phenomenological • Fundamentals of Phenomenological report.
and Ethnographic and Ethnographic Research
Research Approaches

• Steps in Conducting Phenomenological

and Ethnographic Research
Approaches

• Reporting Phenomenological and

Ethnographic Research

Why This Lesson

Phenomenological and ethnographic research are qualitative research approaches commonly conducted by
educational researchers. This lesson deals with these two approaches. At the end of the lesson, you will be
able to explain:

• Fundamentals of Phenomenological and Ethnographic Research Approaches

• Steps in Conducting Phenomenological and Ethnographic Research Approaches

• Reporting Phenomenological and Ethnographic Research

Examples of the two qualitative research designs will be provided for you to analyse and discuss.

Fundamentals of Phenomenological Research

What is Phenomenological Research

Phenomenological research is an in-depth examination of what experiences mean to people and the
community. It is a qualitative research design that seeks to understand and describe the universal essence of
a phenomenon. It
• investigates the everyday experiences of human beings about the phenomenon.
• studies lived experiences to gain deeper insights into how people understand those experiences (
Delve, & Limpaecher, 2022)

Hence, the researchers using phenomenological research design to understand a phenomenon’s universal
nature by exploring the views of those who have experienced it. It assumes that people use a universal
structure or essence to make sense of their experience. It interprets the participants’ feelings, perceptions,
and beliefs to clarify the essence of the phenomenon under investigation (Delve, & Limpaecher, 2022)

Phenomenological Model: Transcendental Vs. Hermeneutic Approach

Two significant approaches to phenomenological research are transcendental and hermeneutic approaches.

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Transcendental Phenomenology: In transcendental phenomenology, the researcher aims to understand the
phenomenon by using experience to understand the phenomenon.
Hermeneutic Phenomenology: In hermeneutic phenomenology, the researcher uses interpretation to
understand a phenomenon's experiences and interactions (https://study.com/learn/lesson/phenomenological-
research-model-examples-design.html#:~:text).

Characteristics of Phenomenological Research

Delve and Limpacher (2022) list the following four main characteristics of phenomenological
research design.
• Phenomenological research design is descriptive.
• It aims to uncover what a particular experience means to a group of people and how they
experienced it.
• It requires researchers to set aside their prejudices and a priori assumptions and focus mainly
on the immediate experience.
• It requires the researcher to first describe the lived experiences objectively and then reflect on
the description with reference to the existing theories about the phenomenon.

Why Phenomenological Research?

Phenomenological research is used to study lived experience, gain a deeper understanding of how
human beings think, and expand a researcher’s knowledge about a phenomenon. The central
purposes of conducting phenomenological research are to seek “reality from individuals' narratives of
their experiences and feelings, and to produce in-depth descriptions of the phenomenon”.
Qutoshi (2018) mentions that the purpose of conducting phenomenology is “basically looking very
closely at the phenomena under study to explore the complex world of lived experiences from the
actors’ (those who live it) point of view”.
Delve and Limpaecher (2022) list the following reasons:
• Study lived experiences of human beings and gain insights into their actions and motivations.
• Create awareness and broaden their knowledge about a certain phenomenon.
• Clarify the relationships between lived experiences and the theories used to explain those
experiences.
• Contribute to the development of a new body of knowledge and theories.

Steps in Conducting Phenomenological Research

Phenomenological approach to research may be based on single cases as well as multiple cases. As
other qualitative research, it uses ” many methods including interviews, observations, action research,
discussions, focus group meetings and analysis of the text. The focus is on more in-depth understanding
of phenomena embedded within research participant’s views and perspectives. The analysis is messy,
as data do not tend to fall into neat categories and there can be many ways of linking between
different parts of discussions or observations,” (Delve and Limpaecher, 2022).

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Creswell (1998) proposes the following procedure for Phenomenological inquiry:
• Understanding the philosophical perspectives of the phenomenological approach to
research.
• Write research questions that explore the meaning of that experience for individuals.
• Collect data, mainly through interviews, from the participants who have experienced the
phenomenon under investigation by asking individuals to describe their everyday lived
• experience.
• The phenomenological data analysis i.e. the protocols are divided into statements, and the units
are transformed into clusters of meaning to make a general description of the participants.
• Writing the report: To present the findings of the participant’s experiences.

However, as mentioned by Delve and Limpaecher (2022), there is no clear-cut way to carry out
a phenomenological inquiry. They suggest the following steps:

• Identification of the phenomenon

• Development of a detailed description of the phenomenon
• Bracketing personal prejudices and a priori assumptions
• Collection of data from the participants
• Data analysis - usually involves reading the data, demarcating the data, eliminating
irrelevancies, grouping and naming data into constituents, and arranging the data into themes
that accurately and fully describe the participants’ lived experiences.
• Development of a composite description of the phenomenon
• Presentation of the description.

Advantages, Disadvantages & Limitations

Advantages of Phenomenology Research

1. Unique Perspectives
To be sure, there is some value to be found in focusing research on how people perceive an event
or phenomenon, rather than simply knowing how the phenomena exist in a vacuum.
2. Understanding
Perhaps the biggest benefit of phenomenological research is the fact that it can provide us with a
profound, detailed understanding of a single phenomena.
3. Rich Data
Collected from enough individuals, the data one can receive through phenomenological research
is rich and impressive. This is a form of research that allows for a truly unique approach to
understanding a phenomena.

Disadvantages of Phenomenology Research

• Subjectivity: Establishing the reliability and validity of the approaches can be challenging, which makes
subjective research difficult.

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 • Bias: Researcher-induced bias can influence studies, and this is particularly true with
phenomenological research.
• Data gathering and analysis in phenomenological design may be time-consuming
• Presentation: Presenting the findings of phenomenological research can be difficult because the results
are highly qualitative which makes it hard to present the findings in a fashion practitioners would
consider to be useful.
(Delve and Limpaecher, 2022).

Reporting a Phenomenological Research: An Example

Topic
A phenomenological study of preschool teachers’ experiences and perspectives on inclusion practices
Authors:
Jeanice P. Bryant (2018). Bronwyn Frances Ewing (Reviewing editor Retrieved From
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2018.1549005

Synopsis:
This study addresses the lack of understanding on the logistics and best practices for ensuring the success of
inclusive classrooms among educators. It uses a narrative, phenomenological method to explore in-depth
preschool teachers’ experiences and perspectives on preschool inclusion. The actors are eight general
education preschool teachers from the researcher’s school district in southeastern Virginia; they were
interviewed using an open-ended interview format (Bryant, 2018).

Fundamentals of Ethnographic Research

What is Ethnographic Research?

Ethnographic research is a qualitative research study that provides the researcher a deep understanding of
a community group’s shared culture, conventions, and social dynamics. It involves placing the researcher in
a specific community to observe the behaviour and interactions. It is a flexible research research method.
In ethnographic research, the researchers attempt to gather “information on people and their culture by
gathering data in the form of description. This data is collected usually through observations, interviews, and
examining artifacts that are part of the culture” ( www.softschools.com/examples).
Characteristics of Ethnographic Research
Some of the characteristics are stated below:
• It is being conducted in a natural setting to enable the researcher to explore the social
phenomenon within a socio-political and historical context.
• It investigates usually one case in detail, with a close up, face to face interaction between the
researcher and the participants.
• It consists of interactive and numerous collection of unstructured data and analysis to build local
cultural theories.
• Data are mostly collected from fieldwork experiences.

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 • Data analysis process involves interpretation of the social phenomenon examined; and it is is
presented in the description of themes. (Adapted from Gay, et.al., 2011)
Why Etnographic Research?
Ethnographic methods are a research approach where researchers look at people in their cultural setting, with
the goal of producing a narrative account of that particular culture, against a theoretical backdrop. It is used
not only to study distant or unfamiliar cultures but also to study specific communities within the researcher's
own society. For example, ethnographic research has been used to investigate subcultures e.g. gangs,
alcoholic drinkers, transgender community, football fans, call center workers, and police officers etc.

Steps in Conducting Ethnographic Research

The following are suggested steps to conduct ethnography research:

• Problem formation: The researcher frames the main focus of the study: formulating the problem,
objectives and research questions.
• Selecting a research setting: The researcher decides where to begin by choosing a research setting
from a clear observation or one which he can readily fit in but not intimately familiar with it.
• Gaining access: Formal permission into a group has to sought and gained that you wish to study. The
researcher can also get himself participate in the group as a volunteer and not as a researcher.
Presenting oneself: The researcher needs to decide how to present himself to those in the field.
• Gathering and recording information.
At this stage, the researcher gathers data for the study. This could be done through participant
observation and interviewing key informants.
• Analysing, Interpreting and Writing Report.
The researcher analyses the data collected thematically; interprets the data for findings and finally
presents the findings in a report (Adapted from Singleton and Straights, 2005).

Advantages & Disadvantages of Ethnographic Research

Advantages of Ethnographic Research

One of the main advantages associated with ethnographic research is that ethnography can help
identify and analyse unexpected issues. When conducting other types of studies, which are not based
on in-situ observation or interaction, it can very easy to miss unexpected issues. This can happen either
because questions are not asked, or respondents neglect to mention something. An ethnographic
researcher’s in-situ presence helps mitigate this risk because the issues will (hopefully) become directly
apparent to the researcher.
Ethnography’s other main benefit is generally considered to be its ability to deliver a detailed and
faithful representation of users’ behaviours and attitudes. Because of its subjective nature, an
ethnographic study (with a skilled researcher) can be very useful in uncovering and analysing relevant
user attitudes and emotions.
Disadvantages of Ethnographic Research
One of the main criticisms leveled at ethnographic studies is the amount of time they take to conduct.

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As discussed above, ethnographic studies do not always require a long period of time, but this
consideration is nonetheless valid. Because of its richer output, an ethnographic study will tend to take
longer to generate and analyse its data than many other methods.

During ethnographic studies, it is possible that subjects may not act naturally during a short study.
Longer studies normally counter-act this because the subjects grow to trust the researcher and/or get
tired of any pretense (https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/ethnography/#:~:text)

Limitations of Ethnographic Research

Sample size is a limitation of the ethnography method. The time required being involved in participant
observation and conducting long interviews greatly limits the sample size. Ethnography is laborious and
detailed in the collection of data.

It is difficult to generalize with the ethnography method. When researching a certain culture, the results cannot
necessarily be generalized to other populations. Because the results are based on the cultural responses, the
outcome of the study cannot be applied beyond where the study was conducted.

Subjectivity is certainly a limitation of ethnography. The interpretation of the cultural experience will vary among
researchers. There is not a list of answers from which to choose but rather the use of notes made by the
investigator and later interpreted and categorized by the investigator.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3100516/#:~:text=)

Tutorial Activity
Tutor
Reporting Ethnographic Research: An Example
ial Activity
Study the following example and discuss how ethnographic research report looks like.

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE LEARNING PRACTICES OF GRADE 6 STUDENTS IN AN URBAN

TOWNSHIP SCHOOL IN THE WESTERN CAPE: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
LUCINDA LUCILLE DU PLOOY (MOCKE)
(https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/58913719.pdf)

This ethnographic study is set against the backdrop of underachievement in South African Primary Schools.
Approached from a sociological perspective, the research focus of the study concentrates on the learning
practices of a group of Grade 6 students in an urban township school in the Western Cape. The study
combines the lenses of ‘space’ and ‘learning’ to investigate the learning practices of four Grade 6 students
against the background of two lived spaces. These spaces are: the environmental space of their township
community and home, and the institutional space of their township school and classroom. A critical analysis of
the intersecting dynamics between these spaces that constitute the learning practices of these students is
offered. I focus on how schooling and learning are lived and how these students’ livelihoods articulate with the
learning and pedagogical processes inside and outside school. The study’s main starting premises is that there
is a disjuncture between the rich educational engagements of these students in their environmental space and
how their learning practices are framed, informed and positioned in the institutional space. My study is

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underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm in terms of which I set out to describe and understand the
meanings that the student respondents assign to their learning practices when they are involved in discursive
practices of speaking, knowing, doing, reading and writing. Qualitative research instruments: field notes,
participant and non-participant observations and formal and informal interviews were used in order to answer
my research question and achieve the desired research aims of this thesis. The findings are presented in a
narrative format after deriving at categories and themes using narrative analysis. Finally, my research shows
how these students are positioned in and by their lived spaces (whether environmental or institutional) in
specific ways, and they, based on their own resources, networks and interactions, and by exercising their
agency, actively construct their own spaces of learning. I describe these active constructions by these students
as their ‘conceptual space of learning’ to highlight the complex ways in which they go about to establish their
learning practices in their lived iv spaces. The study provides an analysis of the basis upon which each of these
four students go about constructing their learning practices.
Tutorial Activity

Retrieve from any database a qualitative journal article that states in the article that it is an ethnographic or
phenomenological research study. Using the elements of “defining features” described in this lesson, review
the article and locate where each defining feature of the particular approach appears in the article.

REFERENCES

Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Sage Publications,
Inc.Delve. Ho, L., & Limpaecher, A.(2022). What is Phenomenological Research Design? Essential Guide to
Coding Qualitative Data Retrieved From https://delvetool.com/blog/phenomenology
Gay, L.R., Mills, G.E., & Airasian, P.W. (2011). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and
applications (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education International.
Singleton Jr, R.A. and B. C. Straits. (2005) Approaches to Social Research” .4th Edition. New York:
Oxford University Press
https://study.com/learn/lesson/phenomenological-research-model-examples-design.html#:~:text
https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/ethnography/#:~:text
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3100516/#:~:text=
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/58913719.pdf
- End of Content –

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