Phenomenology as a Qualitative Approach: Researching Live(d) Experience

• In Event: Roundtable Session 75
  In Roundtable Session: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, and Critical Theories in Qualitative Research

Abstract

Qualitative research methods intend to inquire into, learn from, and present the quality of human experience. This paper presents what I have discovered about phenomenology as an approach that connects closely with the quality of live(d) experience through researching the experience of human movement directly. Phenomenology is an act of writing, of writing in a way that the living experience of human phenomenon is evoked. This writing act is a challenging undertaking. The main challenge resides in how one brings the rhythms, tones, and flow of living experience to the movements of ink and paper with words? My intention is to share with this text some of what I have learned with regards to that writing and phenomenological question.

Authors

• John Paul Coleman, University of Ottawa

• Pierre Boudreau, University of Ottawa