Week 3 - Assignment: Justify the Use of Qualitative Designs: Case Study or Phenomenology

Editorial

Aconversation withMax vanManen on phenomenology in its original sense

In this special issue, Nursing and Health Sciences shares a range of qualitative research studies undertaken by new and experienced researchers in the field of nursing and health sciences. This editorial is presented as an interview with Max van Manen, Emeritus Professor in Research Methods, Pedagogy, and Curriculum Studies at the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta and Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. Max van Manen is renowned internationally for his extensive works: books, papers, presentations, workshops, and courses on phe- nomenology, theory, methodology, and practice. As noted by Janice Morse, in the Developing Qualitative Inquiry series, he is the world’s champion of phenomenological theory and meth- odology in education and the human sciences.

Max has been involved in phenomenology since he was an adolescent in the Netherlands where, at school, he read works by Sartre, Camus, Bollnow, and other related philosophical, phenomenological, and literary authors fashionable at that time. He says, “as a youngman I had quite an interest in philos- ophy and phenomenological texts that influenced my later working life in teaching and curriculum studies and research methods.”As a university professor he soon offered a graduate course in qualitative phenomenological research methods with an emphasis on phenomenological writing, and aimed to help students to understand phenomenology in its inceptual (originary) philosophical sense.Max’s clear, articulate, and pas- sionate expositions of phenomenological methodology and the phenomenalities of lived experiences are memorable to those who have heard him speak or have read any of his texts.

In this interview, Isabel Higgins and Pamela van der Riet invited Max to consider the advice he might give to graduate students practicing phenomenology. We asked this of Max with concerns about what is currently being reported as phenomeno- logical research and how to increase the depth of understanding and engagement that is required by researchers to practice phe- nomenology in its original sense and to differentiate it from other forms of qualitative research.

In the introductory pages of his 2014 book, Phenomenology of Practice, Max says:

This text is an invitation to openness, and an invitation of openness to phenomenologies of lived meaning, the meaning of meaning, and the originary sources of meaning. The phrase, “phenomenology of practice” refers to the kinds of inquires that address and serve the practices of professional practitioners as well as the quotidian practices of everyday life. For example, a thoughtful understanding of the meaningful aspects of “having a conversation” may be of value to professional practitioners as well as anyone involved in the conversational relations of everyday living.

My personal inspiration for the name “phenomenology of practice” lies in the work of scholars such as Martinus Langeveld, Jan Hendrik van den Berg, Frederik Buytendijk, Henricus Rümke, and Hans Linchoten who were academics as well as clinicians and practitioners in the fields of pedagogy, education, psychology, psychiatry, and health science… This phenomenology of practice is meant to refer to the practice of phenomenological research and writing that reflects on and in practice, and prepares for practice… A phenomenology of practice does not aim for technicalities and instrumentalities―rather, it serves to foster and strengthen an embodied ontology, epistemology, and axiology of thoughtful and tactful action. (p. 15)

WITH THE ABOVE IN MIND, AND AN EMPHASIS ON A PHENOMENOLOGY OF PRACTICE, WE ASKED: WHAT CONVERSATION WOULD YOU HAVE WITH NEW STUDENTS/RESEARCHERS WHO MIGHT CONSIDER ENGAGING IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

Well, to begin, phenomenology is of course one type of inquiry and then there are many others within the qualitative domain. Because phenomenology has been my life interest, my point of view is that phenomenology is quite different from most other inquiries. Nearly every day I receive emails from people from literally all over the world. They ask questions about their projects or about methodological issues because they are writ- ing a dissertation or they are involved in some research project.

ON SATURATION

For example, yesterday I received an inquiry regarding the im- portance and role of “data saturation” for a phenomenological dissertation study. Data saturation is a well-known issue in qualitative research: how long do you go with your data explo- ration in order to get to the point of saturation, when no more newmeaning is discoverable? The method of data saturation is based on the idea that once the responses (interview or written texts) to a research question are saturated and no longer yield anything new then you do not have to pursue the qualitative meaning any further. So, this person said in her email: “I have a feeling that data saturation does not go well with phenome- nology, but I am not quite sure.” Of course, questions with regard to issues such as data satu-

ration are related to validity [or trustworthiness in qualitative research]; and, indeed, this practice of saturating the data does not make sense when doing phenomenology. It may be helpful

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Nursing and Health Sciences (2016) 18, 4–7

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in other types of qualitative inquiries, but phenomenological understanding is not a matter of filling up some kind of qualita- tive container until it is full or of excavating a data site of mean- ing until there is nothing left to excavate. The idea that you keep looking until you have saturated your material, until your data are saturated, does not make sense because there is no saturation point with respect to phenomenological meaning. In phenomenological inquiry, you open up a question, which becomes bottomless –so it does not make sense to say that you caught all the meaning or meaningfulness of a human phenomenon. Every phenomenological topic can always be taken up again and explored for dimensions of originary meaning and aspects of meaningfulness (see van Manen, 2014, pp. 39-41, 52-54). The whole idea of looking for the same kind of content, like in content analysis – looking, looking, looking for certain words etc., until nothing new comes – this does not make sense to phenomenology. But interestingly, the contemporary phenomenological

philosopher Jean-Luc Marion (2002) also uses the notion of “saturation” in the phrase of “saturated phenomena;” however, in quite a different sense. In fact, Marion’s approach to the idea of saturated phenomena has nothing whatsoever to do with the qualitative technique of data saturation. His idea is much more profound ontologically. Marion argues that some human phenomena are so satu- rated with excess meaning and intuition that an eidetic or originary phenomenological analysis of the meaning of this phenomenon is not really possible (by means of the reduc- tion). Marion gives the example of phenomena such as the lived experience of an “event,” an “icon,” and the sacred experience of “revelation” when there is such depth or com- plexity of excess meaning that you will never be able to describe the essence or meaning of this phenomenon. For example, some saturated phenomena may be invisible, such as the latent meaning of an “event” that only will show itself much later in life. In my book Pedagogical Tact, Knowing What to Do When

You Don’t Know What To Do (van Manen, 2015), I tell [of] such [an] event: At a pleasant social evening some friends are sit- ting around talking about a symphony orchestra that is playing in town. Edward, a retired businessman, expresses his admiration for the concertmaster. Some other people join in and talk about the challenges of being a successful musician. Then Edward takes the floor again: You know, this is a memory that has obsessed me my entire life. Until recently I have not been able to talk about it with anyone because it is so hurtful. Even as an adult, sharing it would have brought me to tears. When I was sixteen years old, after studying violin for a number of years, I realized that I could never really be good enough. I just lacked something. I could not really excel. So I decided to give it up. My father was very unhappy about my decision. He tried to change my mind. But I refused. I told him that I knew that I would never be able to play the instrument properly. Angrily, my father took the violin frommy hands. He hung it on thewall of the living room and said, “From now on, whenever you look at this violin, youwill knowwhat a failure you are inmy eyes.” I felt horrible. After several weeks my mother took the violin down from the wall. She felt sorry for me. But the empty spot could not be taken down. It haunted me: I was a failure in my

father’s eyes. The memory of that moment has troubled me all my life. Therefore, I have always told my own kids that they should do whatever they feel is right for them and not what they may feel I expect from them. My father never took his words back about me being a failure, even though eventually I became the successful head of a large company. But now, at the age of eighty-two, I finally feel that I have dealt with my secret pain or, at least, that I can share it here with you.

Edward’s story shows how the latency of this event (a peda- gogical moment) can affect us for the rest of our lives, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. But obviously the eventiality of the event is relationally, emotionally, and tempo- rally saturated with meaning that may only gradually unfold (see van Manen, 2014, pp. 191- 193). In some sense the satu- ratedmeaning of this event was still not describable by Edward after some 60years. Thus, the phenomenality of some event in our childhoodmay still not be graspable [intelligible] until later in life, when we are beginning to discern its ontological signifi- cance. Other saturated phenomena such as an experience of an “icon” or a spiritual “revelation”may be too enigmatically and excessively charged with meaning that simply seems inexpress- ible or resist[s] description. In his 2002 book, In Excess: Studies of Saturated Phenomena, Marion describes this phenomenal dimension of the self-givenness of a phenomenon. Other phe- nomenologists have subsequently argued that, actually, all human phenomena are in a sense saturated with meaning, and therefore inexhaustible to a final and determinable analysis.

ON A DESCRIPTION OF LIVED EXPERIENCE

For new students to phenomenology, my main aim is always to try to show first what is unique about phenomenological in- quiry, the quest for meaningfulness and originary meaning of human existence and lived or living experience.What phenom- enology tries to understand is this or that lived experience or event. Pre-reflective or lived experience is the moment or instant of the “Now” – we are always in the “Now,” and yet when we reflectively try to capture the “moment of the Now” we are always too late. So, in a sense, we are always in the Now (how couldwe not be?), but in another sense we are never in the Now. The presence of the Now is always absent to our grasp. This realization is initially rather off-putting and confus- ing for students. But they gradually begin to realize that this elusiveness regarding the lived meaning of human existence is exactly what makes phenomenological inquiry so wondrous.

So, in the early part of my teachings, in my course on phe- nomenology, I try to explore the basic idea of phenomenology and the lived experience description – like something that has happened to you: like meeting someone and forgetting their name; feeling sick when getting up in the morning; writing an email message; staying in a hotel room; riding a wave while surfing; having a[n] eye-to-eye conversationwith a friend; read- ing a story digitally versus reading it in print, and so forth. Any experience we have in our everyday lives can be a phenomeno- logical topic and so, in the research course, we do various writing exercises to produce an experiential description: writing a description as a moment of the now – not a generalization, but a description of a specific and unique moment of our experience. We try to be very particular and very concrete so

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that [in] the “moment” is what you try to describe. But, of course, a moment can have the duration of a second, a minute, an hour, or even months or years.

ON THE NEED FORA SENSE OFWONDERAND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

In the introduction to thePhenomenology of Practice, I confess why I have always been fascinated with phenomenology: a preoccupation with meaning and things we may wonder about – common and exotic, small and immense. Many of us are impressed with the beauty of the things, the wonder of the uni- verse, the enigma of the big bang and what was before, the mystery of dark matter, and such wondrous and amazing phe- nomena. For me, phenomenology is like that. It is the opposite of religion, which tries to come to a final answer of the divine meaning of things. Phenomenology does the exact opposite. It also deals with questions of meaning and meaningfulness but the questions becomemore andmore troublesome, deeper, and more fascinating and yet in some sense, for me, they have the function of something deeply human. Phenomenology always orients to meaning, livedmeaning, and I can never have enough of this quest as exemplified in the great writings of authors such as Hannah Arendt, Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Serres, Alphonso Lingis, Bernard Stiegler, Jean-Luc Nancy, andmany others. To come to grasp the sense of what friendship means, a real conversation, or what love is, or profound emo- tions of affect – this lies almost in the realm of the spiritual, the enigma of the human spirit.

FUNDAMENTALTO ALL QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IS THE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND ORTHEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE RESEARCH APPROACH. SHOULD RESEARCHERS PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THIS, TO READING PRIMARY SOURCES?

The importance of writing in an experiential way

Yes, it is important, for example, to understandmethodologically what “reflection” means. You have to select your sources care- fully. I am currently reading a book on reflection by the out- standing phenomenologist Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann who was a friend of Eugen Fink and a personal assistant of Heidegger. According to von Herrmann it is not the cognitive (in a conceptual or theoretic sense) that you need to get at but phenomenology concerns the a-theoretic, it concerns the living dimensions of our existence.And sowhen you try to get at things cognitively or theoretically (and for von Herrmann (2013) reflec- tion is already theoretic) you make this living sensibility into an object, you objectify. He argues that here is where Heidegger de- parted from Husserl. For Husserl, reflection on consciousness was his big thing becauseHusserl’s phenomenology aims tomake a phenomenon (lived experience or element of consciousness) transparent. And, thus, you describe the whatness, eidos, or es- sence of something. But for Heidegger, what something “is” ulti- mately eludes and hides itself. What “appears” is a revealing and a concealing in terms of meaning and so this author is trying to

show that with Heidegger; you have to begin to see that it is not reflection that is Heidegger’s method. Instead, Heidegger tries to come to “understanding” of the moment – this is the hermeneutic: not to make experience into a thing or an object, but understanding something as a livingmoment in its livingness. So not objectifying, theoretical reflection but reflection

that ponders, muses, contemplates on the meaning of things and on the how of meaning is the hermeneutic of descriptive-interpretive phenomenology. It is hard to explicate this reflective method (Besinnung in German language) because we are so used to making things into objects and to objectifying things. It is philosophically impossible not to do this: as soon as we think, reflect, we name the phenomenon and it becomes a “thing.” For example, forgetting someone’s name; everyone knows

this experience. There is so much meaning in this: the idea of the name (what does it name?), recognizing someone (what dowe recognize in the other?), remembering or forgetting someone’s name. What happens in moments like this? But still we make a concept out of the experience: “name forgetting.” It is a concept now, instead of an event or a happening. But what phenomenology tries to do is to understand whilst it is happen- ing as a moment, and this makes phenomenology different from any other form of qualitative inquiry. Phenomenology tries to understand something as an event, and this makes it different frommost forms of inquiry. Phenomenology tries not to objectify while aiming to describe the livingness of experience or the living moment of the experience. Indeed, you try to avoid objectifying and yet this is what we constantly do. This is the challenge of writing in an experiential way, an evocative analytical way, and not a theoretical reflective analytical way. When doing phenom- enology, it is the lived meanings that we want to get at.

IS IT PHENOMENOLOGY OR NOT?

On the one hand I don’t care how you name your research method, as long as it is a good study – as long as I am fascinated by it. On the other hand, it does matter what you call it because researchers confuse things so terribly, they intermesh ideas that should not be put side by side because the ideas are based on very different domains of inquiry and on very different assump- tions. Then they thematize – one of the most used and abused words in qualitative inquiry is “thematic analysis.” And unfor- tunately for many graduate students, their research themes tend to become terribly superficial, simply re-phrasing what someone has already told them. If a study claims to be phenomenological, then it should

not be something else, like interpretive psychological anal- ysis, ethnography, grounded theory, narrative inquiry, or general qualitative description; however worthwhile these other methodologies may indeed be. Phenomenology does not aim to explicate meanings that are relevant to under- standing cultures or social groups. Phenomenology does not aim to develop theory. So methods texts, that offer procedural interpretive phenomenological analysis – with step one, step two, step three, and so on – do not make sense for original phenomenology. Procedural methods may be acceptable for general qualitative and psychologi- cal methodologies in a wider sense, but not for a of

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phenomenology of practice as it is exemplified by authors such as van den Berg, Linschoten, Buytendijk, Langeveld, and many others. Reading only secondary or poorly conceived tertiary sources

may be very misleading, leading to the practice of misquoting primary texts, so that original ideas are watered down, distorted, and sometimes represented rather ludicrous. Phenomenology is rooted in philosophy. The phenomenological researcher does not have to become a professional philosopher, but he or she needs to develop an understanding of the philosophical sources of phenomenology and, therefore, one needs also and impor- tantly to read those primary texts that relate to one’s research focus and interest.

CONCLUSION

This conversation with Max van Manen was largely driven by the advice hemight give to new students and researchers about qualitative research and the practice of phenomenology. In this conversation he provides several lessons. He shows us how phenomenology is a type of qualitative research and calls upon new students and researchers to understand, in an original sense, the methodological distinctions and their differences; their unique epistemologies and ontologies. On the notion of “data saturation,” he highlights the issue as important in all other forms of qualitative research; however, it is inappropriate in phenomenology. On a description of lived experience – the search for meaning and writing experientially – he invites us to consider phenomenology’s uniqueness: as wonder, as the search for meaning of “lived experience;” the exploration of human existence directly, as primal pre-reflective experience, as life as we live through it, in the moment, in the now. It is the search and explication of “living meanings.” To practice phenomenology, one needs to be guided by an understanding of the philosophical methodology of phenomenology, to return to primary sources, not secondary or tertiary sources, in order to ensure the assumptions that underpin the inquiry are con- gruent. To do otherwise is not phenomenology, and thematic analysis is not a simple rephrasing from another source. This special edition of Nursing and Health Sciences offers

a range of qualitative descriptive papers. A number of the articles attend to the vulnerability of human experience in a variety of situations and contexts: maternal age-specific

risks, hypertension, children with cancer, transient ischaemic attack, gastric cancer, and the lived experience of delirium. As researchers in nursing and health care we have a need and desire to understand human experiences, to seek out new knowledge, in order to be able to make a difference to the patients in our care.

Max van Manen provides readers with insights that will not only be valuable to novice researchers practicing phenomenol- ogy, but also to researchers concerned with methodology and qualitative research. Ultimately, his advice, to ensure a deep understanding of the roots or primary sources of the methodol- ogy being used, needs to be heeded by all qualitative re- searchers as it impacts the quality and trustworthiness of qualitative research.

We wish you well and a bright year ahead for 2016. Max van Manen, Isabel Higgins, and Pamela van der Riet

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Max van Manen for generously giving his time. His passion for phenomenology and the wonders of the lived world are truly inspiring.

Max van Manen, PhD, EdD Honoris Causa Isabel Higgins, PhD, MN, AssDipNursED, RN

Pamela van der Riet, PhD, MEd, DipED(Nursing), BA, RN International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, University

of Alberta, Alberta, Canada School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health and

Medicine, University of Newcastle, Australia

REFERENCES Marion J–L. In excess: Studies of Saturated Phenomena. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 2002.

van Manen, M. Phenomenology of Practice: Giving Meaning Methods in Phenomenological Research andWriting.Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2014.

van Manen, M. Pedagogical Tact: Knowing What To Do When You Don’t KnowWhat ToDo.Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2015.

von Herrmann, F-W. Hermeneutics and Reflection: Heidegger and Husserl on the Concept of Phenomenology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.

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© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.