Throughout our 2 week residency on campus our cohort has been exploring several different research ‘lenses’ through class discussions, group assignments, loads of research articles and reading Mindful Inquiry in Social Research. I have to be honest in saying that I was not initially looking forward to a class in research methods. It sounded terribly dry and potentially prescriptive. My past research is limited within a literary context. Reading critical literary theory seemed like a far cry from scientific research using quantitative data. I was skeptical that I would ‘get it.’ Imagine my surprise upon delving into our textbook that some research approaches, or cultures of inquiry, such as ethnography and action research were not entirely unfamiliar to me. This familiarity gave me a bit of confidence and I jumped in deeper.
One lens in particular captured my interest. Up until 2 weeks ago I couldn’t even pronounce phenomenology let alone describe it (I still can’t describe it…). It is slippery and hard to wrap my head around. Of course I was instantly drawn to it. I read passages out loud over and over in the hopes that something would click and the proverbial lightbulb would go on.
This poem, as quoted by Max van Manen (2011), really strikes a chord with my new found love for phenomenology.
If I were to tell you where my greatest feeling, my universal feeling,
the bliss of my earthly existence has been,
I would have to confess: It has always, here and there,
been in this kind of in-seeing,
in the indescribably swift, deep, timeless moments
of this divine seeing into the heart of things.
(Rainer Maria Rilke, 1987) (2011, p. 1)
Phenomenology looks for the purest form of human experience of a particular phenomenon. It seeks to describe an individual’s experience as their physical and emotional reactions come into consciousness. One on one interviews are the most common method and the researcher takes into account his or her own experience.
van Manen (2011) elegantly describes a phenomenological approach:
Not unlike the poet, the phenomenologist directs the gaze toward the regions where meaning originates, wells up, percolates through the porous membranes of past sedimentations—and then infuses us, permeates us, infects us, touches us, stirs us, exercises a formative affect. (2011, p.2)
Yes, I’ve definitely found the beauty in research.
References
Bentz, V. M., & Shapiro, J. J. (1998). Mindful Inquiry in Social Research. [Kindle Paperwhite version]. Retrieved from Amazon.ca.
van Manen, M. (2011). Phenomenology & Practice, Volume 1 (2007), No. 1, pp. 11 – 30. Retrieved from http://www.maxvanmanen.com/files/2011/04/2007-Phenomenology-of-Practice.pdf.
Marlas Kuiper 
Beautiful poetic thoughts here Marlas you are an inspiration.
I have been finding phenomenological approaches in my daily life just to practice with the concepts. For example, I pause to wonder why our shared experience as a cohort at residency has sparked such reflection. The lived experience and the reflection after the experience is where the clarity will come or like van Manen says “where the meaning originates”. So too comes clarity on reflection. When we experience for the first time a new concept it is difficult to understand but in time and with reflection it becomes clearer. As we move forward, in our research it will become even clearer. At least I am trusting that this will be the case.
van Manen, M. (2011). Phenomenology & Practice, Volume 1 (2007), No. 1, pp. 11 – 30. Retrieved from http://www.maxvanmanen.com/files/2011/04/2007-Phenomenology-of-Practice.pdf.
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Thanks for helping me to connect art with academic research! As I read van Manen’s statement about poetry, I immediately thought of all art: visual, interpretive, performing, written. Could art itself, in all its forms, helps us to direct our gaze towards “regions where meaning originates, wells up, percolates through the porous membranes of past sedimentations—and then infuses us, permeates us, infects us, touches us, stirs us, exercises a formative affect” (van Manen, 2011, as quoted in https://marlaskuiper.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/phenom-a-wha/)? Is the purpose of art, in all its forms, similar to the purpose of phenomenological research? Is art the reflection after the lived experience, just as the data would be after the phenomenological experience?
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My gripe about poets has been that they make us guess what they are trying to say. I joke about it, but still find them obscure. By connecting poetry and phenomenology, you may have helped me on my journey to opening my mind to poets. Phenomenology was a new construct to me as well–at least as a formal research method. Empathy however, is a more familiar concept, less formal and rigorous than phenomenological inquiry to be sure, but still trying to see the world through someone else’s eyes. I shall attempt to see the world through the poet’s eyes. I’m sure there is beauty hidden in the innuendo and unfinished sentences. Everyone says so. You say so. It’s worth a try. Perhaps a scientific method of approaching art won’t destroy it entirely.
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Haha Jim! It’s definitely worth a try. Thanks for the comment.
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This was a beautiful way to describe Phenomenology. You took a research lens that was somewhat mysterious to me and put it into terms that I could wrap my head around. I have to admit that when I first read about it, I wondered why anyone would ever use it if it doesn’t have a solid, measurable outcome. I had to free myself from the work research mindset I had fallen into open my eyes to the larger world of investigation for comprehension. Once I managed to somewhat let go of my preconceived notions of what research is, I realized that there really is a lot more beauty to it than I had thought. You managed to word this discovery far more eloquently than I ever could have. Thank you so much for this!
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