Hermeneutic phenomenology is an approach traditionally used in nursing and health but which is now seeing more pick up in other human-centred disciplines including pyschology, education and sociology. It explores individuals' lived experience and considers how this can be used to understand motivation and engagement. Many of the books in this space are extremely dense and focus on the philosophy and theory rather than applied practice. They also tend to be self-referential and inward facing; they do not try to make the field accessible to new researchers and students. This book is designed to be used by MA and PhD students as well as by early career academics who need an easy introduction to best practice. The authors set out the advantages and disadvantages of the methodology using real world (published) case studies. The book carefully combines philosophy, methodology and method. The key philosophers of phenomenology are presented and explored, and the translation of philosophy into research theory is explained by experienced hermeneutic phenomenological researchers. They then demonstrate explicit ways in which the methodology underpins researchers' choices and how this is translated when designing hermeneutic studies. The book is structured around the research process with chapters mapping each step from design all the way through to dissemination. It will take students step-by-step through their research projects as well as helping them to critique their own work and research output from other scholars. There has been a resurgence in publishing hermeneutic phenomenological titles with three new competitor titles publishing in recent years. One of these titles ties theory to practice but it is still very philosophical and is not a teaching text - the author includes high level discussions of complex research and assumes significant prior knowledge. We don't have much in this space, there is an Inc title Cohen et al. Hermeneutic Phenomenological Research (2000), and several books with chapters covering this topic. The proposed book is much more focused than Smith's Interpretative Phenomenological bestseller but it fills a gap in our coverage.

Coming to Thinking

  • Dr Lesley Dibley 172
    • First encounters with phenomenology 172
    • Engaging with the thinking of hermeneutic phenomenology 173
    • Key hermeneutic thinking for me 175
    • Bibliography 176
  • Professor Suzanne Dickerson 177
    • Encountering hermeneutic phenomenology as a research methodology 177
    • Engaging in the thinking 177
    • My studies 178
    • Key hermeneutic thinking for me 179
    • Bibliography 180
  • Dr Mel Duffy 182
    • Initial toe dipping 183
    • Finding my tribe 184
    • Studies undertaken 184
    • Bibliography 185
  • Professor Roxanne Vandermause 187
    • Bibliography 188
  • Part IV Summary 190

Dr Lesley Dibley

First encounters with phenomenology

I think I have always been a phenomenologist, but not realised it – looking back to the beginning of my nursing career and the decisions I made which led me purposefully away from my childhood home and into this future, everything I did and understood and knew about my world was ...

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