Teaching Gerontology in Transcultural Academics: A Phenomenographic Study of Thai and Swedish Nurse Educators’ Conceptions of Gerontological Nursing

Introduction: There is an urgent need for registered nurses with gerontological competence within long-term care (LTC) of older adults. Despite increases of life expectancy, LTC for older adults is not emphasized in nursing curricula in neither Sweden nor Thailand. Thus, the aim was to explore conceptions on gerontological nursing (GN) among Swedish and Thai nurse educators. Method: A qualitative phenomenographic method, based on open-ended interviews with five Thai and nine Swedish nurse educators was conducted. Results: The results indicate a paradox between the educators’ knowledge about the implications of global aging, their hope of own aging, and LTC. The ethical responsibility of being credible and a source of inspiration in teaching about aging are focused, while GN seem to be less important. Discussion: To increase students’ interest in GN, measures need to be taken within the educational arenas, where the educators’ own conceptions toward GN, cultural aspects of aging, and LTC are discussed.

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The rationale for this study stems from the Swedish educational context, where teacher practice is subject to policies stating that education must be built on research foundation and proven experience. In a previous article (Åman & Kroksmark, 2018), we demonstrated that the research foundation is operating in concurrence of teachers’ practices and experiences. This study in turn aims to explore how teachers understand proven experience and practices of proving professional experiences. The data was collected in 2014 in the project Modellskolan [The Model School], financed by the Swedish Research Council, through a stimulated recall method. We filmed 14 interviews with teachers focusing on group discussions about teachers’ practical dilemmas. The interviews were analyzed with a phenomenographic method, and the result revealed five categories with which the teachers evaluated collegial and individual experiences. The categories were analysed through praxis theory and linked to the phenomenological concepts of time and space to elucidate how fluid situated and unspoken professional experiences become systematic, general and partly transferable through proving practices. The results shed light on how teachers’ experiences and everyday practices challenge and encourage revisions of the definitions of research foundation and proven experiencea in Swedish national policies.

Reflective phenomenography: elaborating on the reflective practice framework for phenomenographic data analysis

Over the last two decades, one can notice a considerable turn to the reflective qualitative inquiry. However, in phenomenographic research design, the role and value of reflection are often neglected. This paper elaborates on the Reflective Practice Framework for phenomenographic method of data analysis developed as a result of undertaking an empirical phenomenographic research. The paper considers genealogy of the concept reflection and models for reflection in qualitative research to discuss the theoretical foundations of the proposed Framework. Two levels and five steps of the Framework are explained, and an example of how the Framework can advance analysis of unstructured phenomenographic data is provided.

The place of the family of origin in romantic relationships of adults with intellectual disabilities.

The family in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities is not only their closest and most essential social group, but often also their basic or even the only source of support in everyday life from childhood to the late old age. In a situation of adults with intellectual disabilities who start a new romantic relationship (of a formal or informal nature), the family of origin may play different roles and occupy different places in their everyday lives. The research using the phenomenographic method of qualitative research on experiences related to being in long-lasting romantic relationships conducted with adults with intellectual disabilities allowed the author to show the place of family members (parents, siblings, extended family) in their everyday lives and in their relationships with partners.

A Phenomenographic Study of Adolescents’ Conceptions of Health Information Appraisal as a Critical Component of Adolescent Health Literacy

This paper reports on a health literacy study that explored adolescents’ conceptualizations of health information appraisal as a social practice in Latvia. The study was guided by phenomenography, a qualitative research approach used to describe people’s conceptions of a particular phenomenon. A purposive, maximum variation sampling was used, and 24 adolescents were recruited to take part in the study, ranging from 13 to 16 year-olds. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken for data collection. A phenomenographic method for data analysis was performed using the guidelines proved by Sandberg. The data analysis presented seven categories of description and an outcome space representing the adolescents’ qualitatively different conceptions of health information appraisal. The implications for health education in school are discussed.

Experiencing parenthood in early adulthood

This article attempts to present ways of experiencing parenthood among 17 young adults who have become mothers/fathers. The study was carried out using the phenomenographic method, which sought to describe how the young parents gave meanings to the phenomenon of parenthood; what it meant for them to be a parent. Based on the approach designed by the creators of the phenomenographic research method, we made the epistemological assumption that there is no other world besides the one that an individual experiences. A family was recognised as a special place for learning and experiencing the world, which appears to young adults as a concept of parenthood in their consciousness. The detailed categories of description, revealing concepts of experiencing parenthood, proved to be discursive and strongly context-related. There was considerable ambivalence in the findings, indicating that parenthood fluctuates between polar interpretations of experience and significantly goes beyond an educational context of upbringing. The circumstances accompanying experiencing of parenthood are strongly connected with cultural messages conveyed to groups and individuals by various lifeworld agencies: our interviewees proved to be completely embedded in them. Our findings support the hypothesis that the problem of educational practice connected with experiencing parenthood places it in the world of contemporary culture, which is torn apart by ambiguity and chaos of changing offers, as well as complexity-saturated “reversible” culture, the contents of which are subject to constant reconstruction. This provides essential reasons for developing a theory of lifelong learning in the family.

Phenomenography’s contribution to organizational studies based on a practice perspective

Purpose This paper aims to propose the phenomenography as an approach that may contribute to the organizational studies based on the practice perspective, considering that it analyzes the phenomenon through the practitioner’s view and experience. Design/methodology/approach It is a theoretical essay about phenomenography as a theoretical-methodological perspective, considering its concept, its relation with practice theories and how its theoretical-methodological approach is capable of bringing a new perspective over the organizations, in the practice perspective. Findings The phenomenographic method, together with the practice perspective, enables mapping, identifying, describing and relating all the different ways by which an organization, in each one of its structuring dimensions, is effectively experienced. It argues that aspects such as the phenomenographic interview, the second-order perspective, the collective conceptions stated in the outcome space and their relations, the complexity of hierarchy and the abductive theorization about the emerging concepts of collective perceptions form, all together, an alternative and promising theoretical approach to analyze the entanglement between action and the material dimension that constitutes the organizational practices. Practical implications The phenomenographic outcome space may become a catalyst of a theorization about practices, which is capable to modify them or modify the way they are understood. Originality/value It discusses the possibility of phenomenography to theorize from the agents’ collective consciousness.

Determining the Concept of Organic Agriculture Perceptions of Pre-service Classroom and Science Teachers Using Phenomenographic Method

This study was carried out to determine the perceptions of pre-service classroom and science teachers related to theconcept of organic agriculture. The sample of the study consisted of 85 pre-service teachers, 57 from the Department ofClassroom Teaching and 28 from the Department of Science Teaching in Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, in theacademic year of 2016-2017. In the study, a semi-structured questionnaire which includes the statement “To me,organic agriculture means……” was used as data collection tool. In this study, the organic agriculture perceptions ofthe pre-service teachers were determined under five main categories. The ratio of 'natural agriculture, which has thehighest percentage among these categories, is 41% among the pre-service classroom teachers while this ratio is 65%among pre-service science teachers. It is among the recommendations of the study that the subjects related to organicagriculture are removed from the elective courses and placed in the science curriculum.

A phenomenographic study of 10th grade students’ understanding of electrolytes

Students have various conceptions of electrolytes in learning chemistry. The aim of this study is to identify 10th grade students’ understanding of the electrolyte concept by using a phenomenographic method. Eight students, whose abilities were at different levels, were selected and interviewed. The findings show that four distinctive categories of students’ conceptions of electrolytes are demonstrated, and a hierarchy in terms of the logical progression among them can be developed. Finally, teaching implications are given.

Dzieci z rodzin zastępczych w szkole. Raport o współpracy rodziców zastępczych z personelem szkoły

Children and youth from foster families more often – in comparison to general population – have disabilities, emotional and behavioural disorders (Minnisi in. 2006). Also, in their history of life they often experienced abuse and/or neglect, which may influence their later achievements (Kolankiewicz 2009; Bartnikowska, Ćwirynkało 2016). Foster parents often deal with challenges connected to raising their children. The paper is a research report in which the authors investigate the perceptions of foster parents concerning their cooperation with teachers and school personnel. In order to achieve this aim an interpretivist paradigm and phenomenographic method (Paulston 1993) was applied. Three focus group interviews were conducted with 21 foster parents of children and youth at school age. A qualitative analysis (Charmaz 2009) resulted in the identification of two thematic areas of parents’ perceptions of: (1) division of responsibility (perception of the role of a foster parent and school personnel in the process of their children’s education), (2) positive and negative aspects of foster parents’ experiences in the cooperation with school (personal and organizational level). Based on the results, recommendations on how to improve the cooperation between school and foster parents are proposed.