Supervising phenomenography some personal reflections

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Supervising phenomenographysome personal
reflections

• Christine Bruce,
• Associate Professor and Director Teaching and
  Learning, Faculty of Information Technology

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Who is responsible for method selection?

• I supervise students using a wide range of
  different types of methods.
• The method must suit the research
  problem/question/directions
• The method is a negotiated decision

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How do I explore whether the candidate
should use pgraphy, or not?

• Is the candidate interested in uncovering
  variation?
• Is the candidate oriented towards people and
  their experiences?
• Has the candidate read any phenomenography and is
  he or she interested?
• Has the candidate started to write comfortably
  about phenomenography?

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• Has the candidate had enough time to explore
  pgraphy, and demonstrate an understanding of the
  approach?
• Has the candidate got access to help?
• Is the candidate able to work in an emerging
  field?, growth in multiple directions and little
  clarity/documentation of those directions?

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Case One

• The candidate was interested in understanding how
  to better help her students to learn. She did not
  want to do research. She was a good writer, and
  an excellent oral and visual communicator. She
  wanted to do action research. I encouraged
  phenomenography. She had completed her masters
  (survey) with me, but knew nothing about pgraphy.

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Case Two

• The candidate was at the point of confirmation of
  candidature, and was just starting to explore the
  possibility of phenomenography. The candidate had
  no previous background in phenomenography and the
  original study had not been designed with an
  emphasis on variation. The candidate was a full
  time student and had two years to complete.
  Recommendation no pgraphy.

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Case Three

• The candidate has not completed a previous PhD.
  S/he has been interested in pgraphy for about two
  years, and attended the EARLI SIG in Canberra
  2002. S/he is deeply interested in how students
  learn abstract concepts and has demonstrated an
  early ability to tackle the basic concepts of
  pgraphy and variation theory in Stage One
  application. I am encouraging pgraphy.

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Case Four

• The candidate is an architect, and has chosen to
  use phenomenography in a field where it has been
  previously unknown. The candidates principal
  supervisor supported the use of phenomenography
  and candidature was confirmed (about 2002). A
  phenomenographer was invited to join the
  supervisory team post confirmation.

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Case Five

• The candidate is an knowledge manager, and wanted
  to use pgraphy in a field where it was largely
  unknown. The candidates principal supervisor/
  department was not sympathetic. The candidate
  made a politically driven decision to use a
  research approach (sense-making) that was more
  prevalent in the literature of her field.

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Why do I supervise pgraphy?

• It is an intellectually demanding, and emerging
  research approach, full of unresolved issues
  much potential for contribution
• Results of the approach have made major
  contributions in different disciplines,
  education, health, business, information science.
• Candidates grow as researchers, and
  professionally when they use this approach
• The essence of phenomenography people see
  things in different ways, is sympathetic with my
  personal orientation.

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Pgraphy web page

• http//sky.fit.qut.edu.au/bruce/