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Copyright

Gerlese S. Åkerlind;

Published On

2025-02-10

Page Range

pp. 91–132

Language

  • English

Print Length

42 pages

6. Study design, data gathering and the phenomenographic interview

Chapter of: Phenomenography in the 21st Century: A Methodology for Investigating Human Experience of the World(pp. 91–132)
Interviews are the traditional source of empirical data for phenomenographic research. But the phenomenographic interview is quite distinctive in nature. Phenomenographic interviews have a particular focus on working from concrete examples of participants’ interactions with the phenomenon under investigation, and seeking in-depth reflections from participants on why they interacted with the phenomenon in those particular ways. Participants are not expected to be able to describe their experience of a phenomenon directly, but to demonstrate that experience indirectly, through the ways in which they interact with the phenomenon. This chapter explains the design and conduct of interviews, illustrating the key principles with extended concrete examples from my own and others’ research. Although the focus of the chapter is on interviews, key principles for other forms of phenomenographic data gathering are also clarified.

Contributors

Gerlese S. Åkerlind

(author)
Professor Emerita at Australian National University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3937-7732

Gerlese Åkerlind, PhD, is a professor emerita at the Australian National University (ANU). She was previously Director of the Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods at the ANU, Director of the Teaching and Learning Centre at the University of Canberra, and a long-term honorary Research Associate of the Oxford Learning Institute at Oxford University. Gerlese has particular expertise in the phenomenographic research tradition, with numerous publications on phenomenographic theory and methods. In addition, her empirical research has primarily used phenomenographic methods, investigating the nature of academic practice, including university teaching, research, research supervision and academic development.