Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Paper
Session Information
Contribution
Understanding Unquestioned Epistemological Assumptions of the Educator: My Experience with Phenomenological Enquiry
Abstract*
This paper draws upon the methodological aspect of my thesis work. It is an account on my personal experience as a beginner education researcher. It narrates as to how I made use of phenomenological research approach to explicate the problem at hand- the question of understanding epistemological assumptions (that underpin ‘unproductive’ pedagogical practices) of the educators. The paper tells the way I tried to answer the following general research question using phenomenological methodology.
What are the underlying assumptions and contexts that account for the instructional experiences of history teacher educators /HTEs/ in Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia? (a) How do they comprehend the dimensions and sources of historical knowledge? And then (b) How do they understand the need for and ways of promoting historical thinking abilities of the learners?
Therefore, mainly based on works of Max van Manen (1990), Clark Moustaks (1994), and Creswel (1998), I used phenomenological research strategy to understand essences of the lived experience of the educators in relation to their assumptions about natures and sources of historical knowledge as well as the need for and ways of foster thinking skills of students. Accordingly, with six purposefully selected educators as research participants, in the two-month time field work, unstructured interview and essay questions for personal text were used to gather qualitative data. Documentary sources were also consulted for triangulation. Then, the data were analyzed thematically using an adapted six-phase model and interpretive themes emerged as findings of the study. And it was learnt that the educators have a very muddled conception and really unquestioned assuptions on the nature and sources of historical knowledge. With this, also phenomenological approach happens to be an appropriate strategy to enquire and understand instructional life-world (e.g. essecences of actions and assuptions) of the educator.
*The author is currently an Erasmus Mundus Student at Århus University, Danish School of Education, studying European Master in Lifelong Learning: Policy and Management (MA LLL) program.
Method
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Expected Outcomes
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References
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications. ___________. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications. Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. van Manen,M. (1990) Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy, New York: State University of New York Press
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