Biography 

Max van Manen was born in the Netherlands in 1942, and was educated as a teacher with a background in teaching English as a Second Language. He then came to Canada in 1967 and taught in the Edmonton public school system. By 1971 Max received his Med degree with follow through of completing his PhD in 1973 at the University of Alberta. As described by his biography, Max noticed very little literature on classic phenomenological pedagogy in English, so he translated text from the German and Dutch language.

Max’ experience and exposure to the educational system in the Netherlands provided a foundation for him with continuing his studies on phenomenological pedagogy.

Max is currently active with academics at the University of Alberta in a post-retirement teaching program where he teaches a doctoral research seminar titled Phenomenological Research and Writing. In addition, Max continues to work on several books on methodological and phenomenological pedagogy (“Max van Manen » Biography,” n.d.)

Review of Max Van Manen’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology

From Chapter 2 in his book Phenomenology of Practice (2014), Max gives detail to the reader on the meaning of hermeneutic phenomenology and the method. He explains, “Hermeneutic Phenomenology is a method of abstemious reflection on the basic structures of the lived experience of human existence” (Manen, 2014, p. 26). There are various branches on phenomenology that may have political, ethical, or religious themes. However, hermeneutic phenomenology specifically focuses on the process of,”discursive language and sensitive interpretive devices that make phenomenological analysis, explication, and description possible and intelligible” (Manen, 2014, p. 26).

Max Van Manen states, “phenomenology proposes that some kind of special reflective method or attitude is required that aims to establish access to the primordialities of life as it is lived and experienced from moment to moment” (Manen, 2014, p. 61). To do phenomenology means that you have to start with “lived experience, with how something appears or gives itself to us.” (Manen, 2014, p. 32). The lived experience is an interpretation of an event or phenomenon that is determined by an individual’s culture, language and past experiences. When describing the event (it) as pre-reflective, it is the moment being reflected upon from the recent past. In addition, when reflecting upon a phenomenon we have already distorted the event itself by setting borders around the event. “The moment that I stop and reflect on what I am experiencing in the present –this moment inevitably becomes objectified—it turns from the subjectivity of living presence into an object of reflective presence”(Manen, 2014, p. 34). Essentially, the researcher has to be aware that the act itself of describing a phenomenon distorts its existence. It also requires the researcher to be in a state of mind that is, “surrendering to a state of wonder” (Manen, 2014, p. 27).  The research needs to release their mind to openness, take the filters off, and be in the present.

“The value of phenomenology is that it prioritizes how the human being experiences the world” (Manen, 2014, p. 58). There are topics that can’t be evaluated by traditional research methods which have specific formats and guidance structures. For example when asking a question such as “What does it mean to be content?” an individual may respond in the following:

  • Drinking my coffee in the morning.

With a phenomenological approach the question’s response could be:

  • Drinking a cup of coffee in the morning. It is quiet in the house and everything is at peace. The sun is shining through the window and I am sitting next to it, the large window in my living room. There is dew on the grass, and have the window open feeling the cool rush of autumn air enter the room that wakes me up. Time is moving forward and thinking about the leaves rushing down, how will my son experience leaves as he is only 3 years old? A fleeting image of my father who has passed away comes rushing forward, and my eyes start to water thinking of his smile, the mannerisms in which he treats raking, and soaking in the shared moment of doing something together.

It is in this sphere where  phenomenology becomes, “…more a method of questioning, than answering, realizing that insights come to us in that mode of musing, reflective questioning, and being obsessed with sources and meanings of lived meaning” (Manen, 2014, p. 27).

Article Review

The article How Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Project-Based learning (PBL) Affects High, Middle, and Low Achievers Differently: The Impact of Student Factors on Achievement is chosen to compare the two different methodologies. Sunyoung Han, Robert, Capraro and Mary Margaret Capraro collaborated to create the study (Han, Capraro, & Capraro, 2014).

The purpose of the study is to find how STEM and PBL could impact student achievement with students who are presently low, middle, or high achievers. They also look at individual factors such as, “gender, ethnicity, economic disability, English as a second language, special education, gifted, and at-risk,” in relation to performance (Han, Capraro, & Capraro, 2014, p. 1094).  The study uses quantitative analysis in a longitudinal study over a period of 3 years to see if changes occurred in performance levels. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test is used as a benchmark for recording performance levels of students. Descriptive statistics and a longitudinal linear model (HLM) are used for the data analysis. Teachers receive 7 hour sessions of training with a total of 30 sessions on PBL and STEM. Teachers are required to teach one STEM PBL (math and science) lesson every 6 weeks for a period of 3 years. A control group is selected from 2 other high schools to make comparisons (Han, Capraro, & Capraro, 2014).

Hermeneutic Phenomenology in Comparison to the Methodology of Quantitative Analysis

A Hermeneutic Phenomenology could not be applied to a longitudinal study where quantitative data is collected. Max Van Manen states, “…phenomenology does not provide diagnostic or prognostic tools” (Manen, 2014, p. 44).The initial research question of determining a performance level would not be obtainable, as the nature of phenomenology is oriented to the lived experience. Responses between the control group, the study group, and subcategories of the study group could yield a staggering amount of unique responses. Max Van Manen iterates, “The range of phenomenological meanings of our lived experiences is truly inexhaustible” (Manen, 2014, p. 35).

Hermeneutic Phenomenology sets itself as far as possible from quantitative analysis or a set of procedures to follow with the use of phenomenology as a research method. Inevitably, there is no one way or set of procedures or steps to follow. Max Van Manen provides multiple paths and vehicles to provide the reader into setting oneself into a correct frame of mind of openness, and describes the unraveling of filters needed to be in for the present and in the pre-reflective moment in order to obtain a glimmer of our human essence. However, the research question and the defining roles of the researchers could be explored using a phenomenological lens.

The researcher could explore the research topic by asking students about the experience of learning PBL in a STEM environment, or see how lived experience with STEM and PBL changes over a period of time from participants over the three year period. The researcher could interview the students and ask open ended questions on the phenomenon of their experience in the class. The responses reflect the student’s lived experiences, relationships, culture, and thought processes that are constructs unique to the individual. The setting of “being” in the classroom with projects may have added value in describing the phenomenon, the event of presence in the classroom. The researcher could also gain insight into the teacher experience and use an interview process to record the phenomenological event of using STEM and PBL as an instructor.

Alternatively, hermeneutic phenomenology could be used by a researcher outside of the original study to discover the life experience of the 3 researchers who developed and created the study for STEM and PBL learning. The goal could be to provide a lens of the researchers, “interpretive description of the primordial meaning structures of lived experience” (Manen, 2014, p. 61), by reflecting on the study itself. In such a scenario, the role of the researchers would then become the researched.

The researcher’s intention for the reader could be a,” gaze toward the regions where meaning and understanding originate, well up, and percolate through the porous membranes of past sedimentations” (Manen, 2014, p. 26). The reader would get a pre-reflective reflection of the life essence of a student, a teacher, or a researcher in the parameters of their life experience pertaining to STEM in a PBL environment.

Phenomenology could  be explored as a useful  tool for the researcher to create a spark, a question of wonder that could then permeate into a research topic of interest. It could also be a method in discovering or identifying an inert sense of wonder that may drive an inquiry based project, or a means of finding inspiration within the pre-reflection of their experience of a phenomenon. Notably, phenomenology only attempts to capture of moment of time in its raw human existence. If one attempts to categorizes, analyze, or define a moment it no longer is the study of a phenomenon, but that of something else.

 

References

Han, S., Capraro, R., & Capraro, M. M. (2014). HOW SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL) AFFECTS HIGH, MIDDLE, AND LOW ACHIEVERS DIFFERENTLY: THE IMPACT OF STUDENT FACTORS ON ACHIEVEMENT. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 13(5), 1089-1113. doi:10.1007/s10763-014-9526-0

Manen, M. V. (2014). Meaning and Method. In Phenomenology of Practice: Meaning-Giving Methods in Phenomenological Research and Writing. Left Coast Press.

Max van Manen » Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.maxvanmanen.com/biography/