Copyright
Gerlese S. Åkerlind;Published On
2025-02-10Page Range
pp. 211–248Language
- English
Print Length
38 pages
9. Phenomenography and variation theory
The development of complementary traditions
Chapter of: Phenomenography in the 21st Century: A Methodology for Investigating Human Experience of the World(pp. 211–248)
The epistemological assumptions outlined in Learning and Awareness also led to a theory of learning, called ‘variation theory’. This has been of great value to educational research and development, and has led to its own strand of applied research and practice based on pedagogical applications of variation theory in the classroom and in teacher education and development. Whilst variation theory research is often not strictly phenomenographic, they may be usefully applied together and complement each other in numerous ways. This chapter describes how the variation theory tradition developed during the 2000s, and outlines its ongoing relationship with phenomenography.
Contributors
Gerlese S. Åkerlind
(author)Professor Emerita at Australian National University
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.