Variation And Polarisation: The Benefits And Challenges Of Using Phenomenography As An Approach For Researching Sustainability In Higher Education
Author(s):
Patrick Baughan (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2016
Network:
22. Research in Higher Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

22 SES 08 B, Reflections on Teaching and Research Methods

Paper Session

Time:
2016-08-25
09:00-10:30
Room:
NM-Theatre O
Chair:
Ana Mouraz

Contribution

Phenomenography is a research approach that seeks to identify variation in experiences of a particular phenomenon amongst a sample population, and has been adopted for researching a wide range of higher education issues. These include learning and teaching (Shreeve et al., 2010), curriculum (Fraser, 2006), academic development (Åkerlind, 2007), study support (Hallett, 2010) and academic leadership (Ramsden et al., 2007) as well as disciplinary-based studies (Ashwin et al., 2013).

In a different field, sustainability in higher education has attracted a great deal of interest during the last 20 years, as demonstrated in various areas of policy, practice, and research, particularly in European and American universities. For example, there have been numerous conferences on sustainability; there are dedicated journals; and there is a growing higher education policy agenda addressing sustainability. Further, several studies suggest that many students are interested in seeing sustainability issues progressed in their institutions and addressed in their curricula (Drayson et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2010). However, whilst many universities have been relatively successful in campus environmental issues such as recycling, travel, and reducing carbon emissions, there remains a great deal of debate in the literature about what sustainability means and encompasses, whether the higher education sector should have responsibility for promoting and progressing sustainability, and, most of all, whether and how sustainability should be included in higher education curricula. This last issue appears to be particularly divisive with some commentators providing a persuasive case in favour (Orr, 2002), others providing examples of how sustainability has already been included innovatively in specific disciplinary curricula (Johnston, 2012), and others still suggesting that there are barriers and disadvantages to integrating sustainability in curricula (Chase 2010; Reid & Petocz, 2006). Overall, whilst sustainability is widely associated with good intentions and some success stories in the sector, it has also polarised stakeholders, with some parties interpreting it as an imposition.

Therefore, in this paper, I seek to bring together the research approach of phenomenography with the problematised area of sustainability in higher education, suggesting that the use of phenomenography for further researching sustainability would be valuable, in that it would contribute to our understanding of where the different conceptions and experiences about sustainability lie. The central research questions are: 

(1). How and to what extent can phenomenography be used as a research approach to study variation in understandings and accounts of sustainability in higher education, and contribute to more coherent and meaningful engagement with sustainability in the sector?

(2). What are the benefits and challenges of using phenomenography as an approach for researching sustainability in higher education?

Drawing on empirical and literature-based research, my key argument will be that there is real potential for phenomenographic research to ‘cast light’ on areas of ambiguity and debate in sustainability in higher education, particularly in the context of different disciplines and amongst different stakeholders (staff and student groups). This could help inform a fuller and more inclusive engagement with this phenomena, taking account of the varied understandings and views about sustainability in different disciplines and sections of universities - which phenomenographic research can capture. This could, for example, help shape future policy on sustainability in higher education and provide guidance for teaching staff about whether and how to infuse sustainability into their curricula.

Method

This paper suggests that stronger links could be established between a particular higher education issue (sustainability) and a research approach for investigating higher education phenomena (phenomenography). The paper draws on a three-part research approach. This comprises, first, a focused literature review of key, relevant studies on sustainability and phenomenography. The literature review utilises a range of papers about phenomenography and which evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of phenomenography, including Åkerlind (2005), Collier-Reed et al. (2009) and Sin (2010). The second part draws on my own previous research on sustainability, and as a researcher who has previously used phenomenography, including my recent project which investigated sociology staff and student accounts of sustainability (note, to ensure anonymity, I have not cited my own work in this proposal). Finally, I will use documentary records of my involvement in several sustainability-based initiatives and innovations in the sector. Phenomenography is a distinctive research approach in its focus on variation in the way a particular phenomenon is understood and experienced within a sample group. It is usually undertaken using interviews, but other methods may also be used, such as questionnaires or focus groups. Phenomenography assumes that experiences may be captured in a finite number of qualitatively distinct categories of description (Marton, 1981), the researcher seeking to understand the meanings of these categories and their relationships to each other (Entwistle, 1997). Findings are mapped through the presentation of ‘outcome spaces’ and constituent ‘categories of description’. Thus, with its focus in the way differences is structured (‘quantitative variation’) phenomenography is well suited to researching sustainability, which, as suggested above, is also characterised by difference – in definitions, understandings, views of its role and relevance in higher education, as well as in what roles and responsibilities universities should have in progressing it in policy and pedagogy. Finally, I should point out that there have already been a small but illuminating range of phenomenographic studies on sustainability, usually in individual disciplines or fields of study (Baughan, 2015; Carew & Mitchell, 2006; Reid et al., 2009). But the undertaking of more phenomenographic studies in more disciplines and in other ‘meso’ contexts in universities would provide a valuable knowledge base for informing future sustainability initiatives and teaching, in Europe and beyond.

Expected Outcomes

My paper will offer both outcomes and recommendations as its arguments are based on a literature review and my own research and professional experience. After contextualising the issues and presenting the research questions, I will provide a background to both sustainability and phenomenography. I will summarise the aforementioned approach I used for addressing the research questions, also drawing on key literature studies. My outcomes will be presented in a series of themes and points in response to the research questions. Broadly speaking, I suggest that whilst the challenges of using phenomenography to research sustainability are, generally, similar to those that apply to any phenomenographic project, there are a number of ‘sustainability-based’ benefits to be gained. These include: its depicting of a range of different interpretations of sustainability (which many studies miss); its emphasis on actual sustainability experiences; its tapping into reasons for why participants hold certain conceptions; its highlighting of the different accounts and dilemmas of sustainability. The challenges of using phenomenography in sustainability research include: the labour-intensive nature of the data analysis process; its concealing of emotion due to its focus on difference; and possible challenges in applying phenomenographic data and consequent recommendations in working scenarios, in view of other, competing higher education agendas. In addition, I will offer advice for the phenomenographic researcher who wishes to research sustainability themselves. The study is not yet complete, but will be before the Conference. Whilst further discussion points will be raised, I will conclude that in spite of its limitations phenomenography can provide a valuable and revealing approach for addressing debates and ‘road-blocks’ in sustainability in higher education. Time will be set aside for discussion.

References

Åkerlind, G. (2005). Variation and commonality in phenomenographic research methods, Higher Education Research & Development, 24, 321-334. Åkerlind, G. (2007). Constraints on academics’ potential for developing as a teacher, Studies in Higher Education, 32, 1, 21-37. Ashwin, P., Abbas, A. & McLean, M. (2013). How do students’ accounts of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees? Higher Education, 67, 219-234. Baughan, P. (2015). Sustainability policy and sustainability in higher education curricula: the educational developer perspective. International Journal for Academic Development, 20, 4, 319-332. Carew, A. L. & Mitchell, C. A. (2006). Metaphors used by some engineering academics in Australia for understanding and explaining sustainability. Environmental Education Research, 12, 2, 217-231. Chase, G. (2010). “Large Scale University Curriculum Change: Campus Stories and Strategies for Change (and back again).” Paper, Tomorrow’s Sustainable Universities Conference, Bradford, UK, 15-16 July. Collier-Reed, B., Ingerman, A. & Berglund, A. (2009). Reflections on trustworthiness in phenomenographic research: Recognising purpose, context and change in the process of research. Education as Change, 13, 2, 339-355. Drayson, R., Bone, E., Agombar, J. & Kemp, S. (2013). Student attitudes towards and skills for sustainable development. York, HEA / NUS. Entwistle, N. (1997). Introduction: phenomenography in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 16, 127-134. Fraser, S. (2006). Shaping the University Curriculum through Partnerships and Critical Conversations. International Journal for Academic Development, 11, 5-17. Hallett, F. (2010). The postgraduate student experience of study support: a phenomenographic analysis, Studies in Higher Education, 35, 2, 225-238. Johnston, L. (Ed.). (2012). Higher education for sustainability: Cases, challenges, and opportunities from across the curriculum. Oxon, Routledge. Jones, P., Selby, D., & Sterling, S. (2010). Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education. London, Earthscan. Marton, F. (1981). Phenomenography – describing conceptions of the world around us, Instructional Science, 10, 177-200. Orr, D. (2002). The nature of design: Ecology, culture and human intention. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Ramsden, P., Prosser, M., Trigwell, K. & Martin, E. (2007). University teachers' experiences of academic leadership and their approaches to teaching. Learning and Instruction, 17, 2, 140-155. Reid, A., Petocz, P. & Taylor, P. (2009). Business Students Conceptions of Sustainability, Sustainability, 1, 662-673. Shreeve, A., Sims, E. & Trowler, P. (2010). ‘A kind of exchange’: learning from art and design teaching. Higher Education Research & Development, 29, 2, 125-138. Sin, S. (2010). Considerations of Quality in Phenomenographic Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 9, 4, 305.

Author Information

Patrick Baughan (presenting / submitting)
City University London, United Kingdom

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