The contribution of lifeworld phenomenology to abduction within pedagogical research: the example of becoming a teacher

Abstract

In this article abduction is discussed within a lifeworld approach for empirical research in education. The aim is to identify and describe how abduction could be used as a methodological tool within a lifeworld approach, but also to discuss how this clarification could be used more generally within pedagogical research. The research questions are: 1) which elements could be described as abduction related to analysis and interpretation within a lifeworld approach? 2) What kind of results are possible to obtain through the use of abduction within empirical lifeworld phenomenological research? A study about lived curricula and becoming a teacher is used throughout as an example of how abduction could be used for the purpose of lifeworld analysis.

The theoretical basis for the lifeworld approach and the use of abduction within pedagogical research is to be found within the phenomenological and hermeneutic philosophical tradition. The concept of the lifeworld is of particular importance, putting forward the intermingling between life and world, subject and object, individual and society, et cetera, as a kind of pluralism. Of special importance for the used empirical example is also the theory of the lived body, developed by Merleau-Ponty, and intersubjectivity. Methodology used in the study is primarily lifestory narratives, which have been transcribed verbatim and then analysed within the frame of the lifeworld, where the theory has been used as a kind of lens for analysing the material. The guiding star is openness to the studied phenomenon. We argue that in the lifeworld approach there already exists a tradition or methodological praxis, very similar to the use of abduction in educational research.

In this article several approaches are identified and articulated as included in processes of abduction. First and foremost, abduction is characterized as a kind of closeness to the studied lifeworld. It deals with elucidating the taken for granted, where one tries to grasp the meaning of the studied phenomenon and conditions for existence. The researcher’s preunderstanding is here important as a prerequisite for understanding the others’ lifeworld.

The process of abduction is to a large extent characterised by a hermeneutic analysis where the phenomenon is interpreted as an intermingling between lived life and lifeworld theory or philosophy. Through phenomenological theory also aspects of existence come into focus. It deals with having the studied phenomenon articulated and viewed in new and perhaps not earlier identified ways. The analysis is primarily featured and identified through an intermingling between theory and the narratives, but also through the use of aspects of understanding and explanation, in a kind of mix. The described phenomenological concepts were used in the abductive process in the empirical study elucidating various ways of becoming a teacher.

Rickards story is an example of interpretation and abduction where life and world are intertwined. His lifestory is understood in terms of trajectories when he becomes a teacher. Despite from the teacher educations plans for education, so called the normative trajectory, Rickards trajectory is about health and feelings. Rickard probably moves in several educational trajectories at the same time but his way of becoming a teacher is dominated by the health trajectory. To become a teacher, as Rickard tells us, could be understood in the lived perspective, as a lived body in the world where he exists. In Rickards trajectory we can identify new knowledge in the meeting between theory and practice, in an abductive attitude – like a commuting movement.

Finally, there are contours of five educational trajectories with different properties: a normative trajectory, an unhealthy trajectory, an emotional trajectory, an ambitious trajectory and a misleading trajectory. Students probably belong to several educational trajectories at the same time. A clue to understand the becoming of a teacher could be to understand the lived perspective of students. Theses trajectories are new knowledge in the meeting between theory and practice.