With the Lifeworld as Ground. A Research Approach for Empirical Research in Education: The Gothenburg Tradition

Abstract

This article is intended as a brief introduction to the lifeworld approach to empirical research in education. One decisive feature of this approach is the inclusion of an explicit discussion of its ontological assumptions in the research design. This does not yet belong to the routines of empirical research in education. Some methodological consequences of taking the lifeworld ontology as a ground for empirical research are discussed as well as the importance of creativity in the choice of method for particular projects. In this way, the lifeworld approach has its own particular perspective in phenomenological, empirical research in education.The article concludes with a description of an empirical study based on the lifeworld approach in order to illuminate the possibilities for empirical research in education as well as the significance of this approach for education.

Experiences of educational content in Swedish technical vocational education: Examples from the energy and industry programmes

“…The ontological point of departure also emphasises that the researcher will interpret the interviews based on his or her experiences, starting right from the interview situation. The results should be seen as a co-production of knowledge between the informants, the researchers and later by the reader in the interpretation of this article (Bengtsson, 2005(Bengtsson, , 2013). An awareness of these different levels of interpretation, together with a clear description of the analysis process, as well as the inclusion of informants' own words in the results makes the trustworthiness of this study apparent.…”

“…Research in the lifeworld tradition generates empirical themes, and the strength of these results is to discuss the themes in relation to other empirical studies and theoretical research (Bengtsson, 2013). Therefore, the themes will be discussed and related to previous research below.…”

“…The ontological point of departure in this study is the phenomenology of the lifeworld (Bengtsson, 2013). The assumption is that the world is experienced differently, depending on one's perspective, position and previous experiences.…”

On Baking a Cake: The Phenomenological Method in Positive Psychology

“…This was also demonstrated by a brief review of other journals, which indicates that phenomenological research methods have been used in the investigation of positive psychological concepts such as well-being (Crust, Keegan, Piggott, & Swann, 2011;Lundin, Berg, & Hellström Muhli, 2013;Russell & Moss, 2012), flow (Banfield & Burgess, 2013) and the investigation of strengths (Doutre, Green, & Knight-Elliott, 2013). Papers in two relatively recent editions (2012 and 2013) of the IPJP focused, for instance, on phenomena such as teachers' experiences of enjoyment (Bredmar, 2013), the lived experience of pain (Finlay, 2012), trustful relationships (Lilja, 2013), and using mindfulness to teach phenomenology (Owen, 2013). Two in particular of these papers (Bredmar, 2013;Finlay, 2012) very aptly exemplified the methodological argument presented in this paper and were therefore selected to serve as case studies.…”

“…The paper makes use of a very specific theoretical framework and methodology, termed the lifeworld phenomenological approach (Bengtsson, 2013a(Bengtsson, , 2013b, in order to explore teachers' experiences of enjoyment in the classroom. The concept of enjoyment can be linked to the positive psychology construct of well-being, which very broadly incorporates all traditions related to positive, social and desirable states.…”