Phenomenology and Practice 

About: Phenomenology and Practice is an academic journal published by University of Alberta. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Phenomenology (philosophy) & Lifeworld. It has an ISSN identifier of 1913-4711. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 156 publications have been published receiving 1844 citations. The journal is also known as: Phenomenology and practice.

Debating Phenomenological Research Methods

Abstract: Phenomenological researchers generally agree that our central concern is to return to embodied, experiential meanings aiming for a fresh, complex, rich description of a phenomenon as it is concretely lived. Yet debates abound when it comes to deciding how best to carry out this phenomenological research in practice. Confusion about how to conduct appropriate phenomenological research makes our field difficult for novices to access. Six particular questions are contested: (1) How tightly or loosely should we define what counts as “phenomenology”? (2) Should we always aim to produce a general (normative) description of the phenomenon, or is idiographic analysis a legitimate aim? (3) To what extent should interpretation be involved in our descriptions? (4) Should we set aside or bring to the foreground researcher subjectivity? (5) Should phenomenology be more science than art? (6) Is phenomenology a modernist or postmodernist project, or neither? In this paper, I examine each of these areas of contention in the spirit of fostering dialogue, and promoting openness and clarity in phenomenological inquiry.

The Call of Pedagogy as the Call of Contact

Abstract: In this calling of his young son, and in this lingering moment of reflecting, Michael Ondaatje experiences a pedagogical moment. This pedagogical moment takes the form of a personal responsiveness: acting (saying “good night” to his son, though after letting him wait expectantly) and reflecting (asking himself: “What was it like for my son to have to wait like that?” And by implication perhaps, “Should I have been more attentive?”). This simple moment of a goodnight kiss may actually be filled with psychological and pedagogical significance, as the many references and studies about the goodnight kiss in Marcel Proust’s writings attest (1981): his staying awake while waiting for his mother to come, and whose kiss would finally be able to put Marcel to sleep, his father’s disapproval of him, and the psycho-analytic entanglements.

The Creativity of 'Unspecialization:' A Contemplative Direction for Integrative Scholarly Practice

Abstract: Within the context of health and social care education, attempts to define ‘scholarship’ have increasingly transcended traditional academic conceptions of the term. While acknowledging that many applied disciplines call for a kind of ‘actionable knowledge’ that is also not separate from its ethical dimensions, engagement in the caring professions in particular provides an interesting exemplar that raises questions about the nature and practice of ‘actionable knowledge’: how is such knowledge from different domains (the head, hand and heart) integrated and sustained? This paper is theoretical and wishes to outline some philosophical ideas that may be important when considering the characteristics of the kind of scholarship for caring practices that draw on deep resources for creativity and integration. Firstly, there is an attempt to clarify the nature of scholarly practice by drawing on Aristotle’s notion of ‘phronesis’ (practical wisdom). Secondly, a more meditative approach to the integration of knowledge, action and ethics is highlighted. Finally, its implications for scholarship are introduced, in which scholarly integration may best be served by more contemplative ways of being and thinking. Drawing on Heidegger and Gendlin, we consider the challenges of contemplative thinking for pursuing scholarly practice. We articulate contemplative thinking as an unspecialized mode of being that is given to human beings as an intimate source of creativity. The sense in which unspecialization can be cultivated and practised is discussed.

Listening to the Literal: Orientations Towards How Nature Communicates

Abstract: This paper begins with an assumption that the natural world is literally able to speak. What follows is research around a new place-based, ecological and imaginative public school in Maple Ridge, BC. The school has no building to speak of as there is an attempt being made, as part of the day-to-day pedagogical practice, to listen to the more-than-human as an active voice and co-teacher thereby moving from human teachers/researchers speaking in , about and for the more-than-human towards speaking with and listening to it. Drawing on our lived experience as researchers, theorists, and ecological educators, this paper proposes to draw on the student voices at the Environmental School to posit a series of five distinct orientations. Each of these orientations is potentially available to us and each offers a different way to understand, attend to and communicate with the natural world. These orientations have implications, if taken seriously, for educational practice and content. In this paper, we focus on clarifying these orientations and anchor them with examples from interviews done over the course of several school years with three different students. We end the paper by pointing out some of the educational implications that might arise if we are to take these students and, as a result, the proposed orientations seriously.