Complicating methodological transparency

A historical indicator of the quality, validity, and rigor of qualitative research has been the documentation and disclosure of the behind-the-scenes work of the researcher. In this paper, we use what we call methodological data as a tool to complicate the possibility and desirability of such transparency. Specifically, we draw on our disparate attempts to address calls for transparency about methodological processes in our respective dissertation studies in order to examine how novice researchers can explore transparency as a situated, ongoing, and philosophically informed series of decisions about how, when, and if to be transparent about our work. This work contributes to conversations about how qualitative researchers in education can understand, discuss, and teach qualitative inquiry while continuing to push the boundaries of the field.     

Informal mentoring for aspiring school leaders: a phenomenological study

ABSTRACT

Informal mentoring had been previously identified as a vital component to leadership development and succession planning. Through a phenomenological approach, we sought to capture the lived experiences of aspiring school leaders pertaining to informal mentoring. Using open-ended questions and reflective activities, eight aspiring school leaders provided information about their experiences and characteristics of informal mentoring. Through a human science research perspective, four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) defining informal mentoring, (b) characteristics of effective informal mentors, (c) constructive relationship, and (d) mentoring recommendations. Participants found their experiences with informal mentoring beneficial. There was a reported high level of trust between mentor and protégé and the process was flexible. Because the aspiring leaders sought to become school leaders in the near future, most were cognizant of the fact they needed to have quality mentors, but also be a mentor to new educators.     

流动的多种可能性--伽达默尔解释学循环与问答逻辑

理解何以可能?理解的展开就是解释学循环的往复。先前,解释学循环被认为是本文整体与部分的循环,是一种理解本文的技艺学。历史发展形成了新的问题视域,伽达默尔给出了新的回答:理解是此在的存在方式,此在的时间性决定了理解的循环性,解释学循环在问和答的逻辑中深入,“视域融合”绽放出流动的多种可能性。     

Lonely or bored: Children’s lived experiences reveal the difference

In spite of the growing body of research on loneliness, the relationship between the phenomena of loneliness and boredom has not been sufficiently addressed, especially in respect to children. The question, “How does the child’s experience of boredom stand phenomenologically in relation to the experience of loneliness?” is explored from a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective. A critical examination of the literature regarding the phenomenology of both loneliness and boredom provides a theoretical background to the study. Elementary school children’s experiential accounts of loneliness and boredom are collected through research conversations. An original interpersonal communication board game is devised and used to initiate these conversations. The themes of loneliness and boredom emerged in a process of phenomenological reflection based on the participants’ lived experiences, the author’s personal experiences, and experiential accounts available in the literature. Distinctions between the two phenomena are derived from the exploration of these themes. Both boredom and loneliness are viewed as important pedagogical ingredients in the formation of the child’s inner self.     

Learning Environments Research,Lifeworld Analysis,and Solidarity in Practice

Learning environments research is generally premised on an assumption that something like an environment independent of the individual can be identified. However, research in many disciplines questions this assumption. I outline here a phenomenological perspective of theorizing the environments in which we act and to which we react, our individual lifeworlds. Lifeworld analysis requires a sense of solidarity. Because it allows an understanding of the world of the Other, it constitutes a lens particularly important and useful in teaching as praxis. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

萨特的时间哲学和叙事策略

受现象学思想的影响,萨特非常重视时间的作用,这使得伦理叙事中产生了丰富的时间技巧.萨特的时间观和传统的线性时间观念不同,他认为时间是一种立体的三维结构.小说叙事可以打破传统的线性叙事,在时间的三维结构中自由表现.     

The Potentiality of Authenticity in Becoming a Teacher

This paper arises out of the transition from a PhD thesis on Heidegger's phenomenology to my attempts to come to terms with 'becoming a teacher'. The paper will provide a phenomenological interpretation of being a teacher in relation to the question of an 'authentic' interpretation of teaching/learning and the possibility of an authentic interpretative praxis. I will argue that being a teacher is a phenomenon of human existence which can be interpreted as a possible way of being with authentic and inauthentic potentialities. This way of being is intrinsically linked to that of learning; of becoming human or becoming the authentic possibilities of being-human. As such, the problem of being a teacher is primarily an ethical question (or a question of ɛτηοσ—dwelling); of who we are as humans and of how being a teacher engages with the in-formation of the becoming of students as authentic human beings. This then leads to the problem of how a phenomenological interpretation of education can be applied or lived; of authenticity in teaching/learning and the possibilities of authentic learning environments (educational dwelling) .     

The Phenomenology of Space in Writing Online

In this paper we explore the phenomenon of writing online. We ask, 'Is writing by means of online technologies affected in a manner that differs significantly from the older technologies of pen on paper, typewriter, or even the word processor in an off-line environment?' In writing online, the author is engaged in a spatial complexity of physical, temporal, imaginal, and virtual experience: the writing space, the space of the text, cyber space, etc. At times, these may provide a conduit to a writerly understanding of human phenomena. We propose that an examination of the phenomenological features of online writing may contribute to a more pedagogically sensitive understanding of the experiences of online seminars, teaching and learning.     

现象学视角下幼儿园教师的成长隐喻

不同于工具理性主义的幼儿园教师发展观,以现象学为基础的幼儿园教师发展观重在对教师成长的假设与分析。现象学的立足点是朝向生活世界,主张幼儿园教师是大地的人;现象学强调每个个体的经验脉络,认为幼儿园教师是历史的人;现象学重视个体的意识,提出如果不采用现象悬置的本质直观,教师就无以提升教育意识,并主张幼儿园教师是自然的人。     

Developing pathic sensibilities: A critical priority for teacher education programmes

This paper reports on a hermeneutic phenomenological research inquiry which explored ‘lived experiences’ of the teacher–student relationship in teacher education. An essential understanding from this research is that teachers and students experience their relationship as a play that is uncertain and lived beyond the rules of engagement. Teachers who are attuned to this play show phronesis in the way they relate. This research questions instrumental models of teacher education underpinned by a dominant neoliberal ideology. This research calls for the re-educating of teacher educators and teachers towards essential understandings of relationship and the pathic sensibilities associated with being-in-relationship.