In the process of exploring the space between us (Josselson, 1992) we are dealing with relationships and communication. In this presentation I will look into some methodological challenges when studying the in-between-space (Arendt, 1996; Sidorkin and Bingham, 2004) in a group of headmasters.

When research-questions are explored by seeking depth and nearness, one has to consider epistemological choices. The nearness/depth conception in this actual study leads to a qualitative approach. The study is conducted within a phenomenological orientation and a hermeneutic circularity mode (Husserl, 1931; Heidegger 1996).

Husserl’s concept Umkehrung des Blickes (Depraz 1999) indicates that the researcher continuously turns his attention in circles from the empirical material, to his own reflections, to theoretical concepts, to discussions in the field and back again to the empirical material. The hermeneutical interpretation and meaning-production is taking place in a process of reflexivity while the researcher is changing position between entering an unknown world of knowledge and moving back to his own system of references. In this context I will present the methodological concepts active dwelling and active mirroring.

Phenomenology is not a static and consistent unit (Bengtsson, 2005). Rather we talk about a movement or an orientation including a variation of approaches. In that aspect the researcher has to do a lot of choices. The classical phenomenologists Gorgi (1985) and Moustakas (1994) have developed detailed strategies for phenomenological research which I use as a basic frame, but at the same time I listen to Bengtsson (2005) when he says:

The life-world oriented research cannot give a readymade methodology for empirical studies, with a set of detailed rules for all life-world research………….Instead we need to develop adjusted methods for the specific field of exploration and the research-question. (my translation)  (Bengtsson 2005, s. 38).

Moustakas who was a humanistic-existentialistic phenomenologist wrote late in life (2004) a book, with his daughter, about the need for creativity in meaning-production and the loneliness connected to the struggle for meaning, but he was occupied with the same topic in his early productions as well. He is referring to Husserl when he talks about isolation and psychological pain in his own research (1994). Referring to these phenomenologists I will deal with some aspects of this topic.

Moustakas’ concept linger and endure (1994) will in this presentation also contribute to the explaining of the need for active dwelling and active mirroring in phenomenological studies.

The exsample-study is conducted in the frame of human-science and philosophical pedagogy and it is constructed on an empirical research-rudiment, grounded on the life-world perspective (Bengtsson, 2005). The life-world can be defined as an entity, where body, mind and emotion are involved in all human activities. The life-world perspective is compatible with a hermeneutic mode of working and a phenomenological orientation. During the research one relates at the same time to the subjective and the inter-subjective world.

Arendt, H. (1996). Vita activa: det virksomme liv. Oslo: Pax. Bengtsson, J. (2005). Med livsvärlden som grund: bidrag till utvecklandet av en livsvärldsfenomenologisk ansats i pedagogisk forskning. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Brown, J. R. (1996). The I in science: training to utilize subjectivity in research. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. Depraz, N. (1999). The Phenomenological Reduction As Praxis. I F. Varela & J. Shear (Red.), The View from within: first-person approaches to the study of consciousness (pp. 95-110). Thorveton: Imprint academic. Dooley, M., & Kavanagh, L. (2007). The philosophy of Derrida. Stocksfield: Acumen. Fullan, M. (2007). The new meaning of educational change. London: Routledge. Giorgi, A. (1985). Phenomenology and psychological research: essays. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Duquesne University Press. Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and time: a translation of Sein und Zeit. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. Husserl, E. (1931). Ideas: general introduction to pure phenomenology. London: Allen & Unwin. Josselson, R. (1996). The Space between Us: Exploring the Dimensions of Human Relationships. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Løvlie, L. (1998). Paradoxes of educational reform: the case of Norway in the 1990s (pp. S. 195-214). New York: P. Lang. Løvlie, L. (2007). Education For Deliberative Democracy. I K. Roth & I. Gur-Ze’ev (Red.), Education in the Era of Globalization (pp. 123 - 145). Dordrecht Springer Netherlands. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1994). Kroppens fænomenologi. Frederiksberg: Det lille Forlag. Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Schütz, A., & Bengtsson, J. (2002). Den sociala världens fenomenologi. Göteborg: Daidalos. Sidorkin, A. M., & Bingham, C. (2004). No education without relation. New York: P. Lang. .