The phenomenographic method in educational research
Abstract
Phenomenography is a methodological approach born a few decades ago in educational research that has been little used in educational technology research. Phenomenography, in essence, analyses the variations in the conceptions that people have about a phenomenon in the world around them, its focus is not on understanding the different conceptions that different individuals have and that help to understand the different ways of conceiving a given phenomenon. In this article we aim to describe what phenomenography is and how it is used in educational research with the ultimate goal of encouraging the development of more and better educational research. Thus, after reviewing the concept of phenomenography and conceptions as the main object of study in this method, we analyze one of the most relevant aspects of the phenomenographic approach, which is the selection of participants and its differences with respect to other qualitative research, the defining characteristics of the phenomenographic interview, which is the main technique for collecting information in phenomenographic research, and the particularities of the data analysis process. In addition, some examples of the use of phenomenography in educational technology research are analyzed, identifying the main characteristics they share and concluding by presenting the main contributions of the method and the advantages of its use.
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References
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