1. An introduction to phenomenographic
research
Sheila Webber
and
Bill Johnston
EAHIL+ICAHIS+
ICLC workshop
Edinburgh
June 2015

2. Structure
• Introduction to phenomenography
– What it is & the process of research
– Examples of research
• Exercise: Examining a phenomenographic study
• Carrying out phenomenographic research
– Research question and sampling
– Phenomenographic interviewing
– Phenomenographic analysis
• Exercise: Transcript analysis
• How you could use phenomenography in your own work
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

3. Introduction to phenomenography
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

4. "Phenomenography is the empirical
study of the differing ways in
which people experience,
perceive, apprehend, understand,
conceptualise various
phenomena in and aspects of the
world around us.”
Marton (1994)
Marton, F. (1994). Phenomenography. In T. Husén and T.N. Postlethwaite. (Eds.), The international
encyclopedia of education. (2nd ed.). (pp. 4424-4429) Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

5. Phenomenon
?
Interviewee
Interviewer
Interviewees chosen
purposively, usually to
maximise potential variation
The interview circles
around the central question:
discovering the key focus of
Interviewee’s conception of
the phenomenon
You should be empathetic,
but should not influence the
interviewee
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

6. Interviews
e.g. for academics’ conceptions
of IL and teaching IL - 3 basic
questions:
– What is your conception of IL?
– How do you engage your
students in IL?
– What is your conception of the
Information Literate University?
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

7. Categories
Pool of interview
transcripts
Analysis
e.g.
describing
different
ways of
experiencing
the
phenomenon
A descriptive ‘snapshot’ + Outcome Space (structure)
Holistic view
Variation not
communality
Not looking for
causal
relationships
Focus only on
transcripts
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

8. Examples
• Librarians’ conceptions of themselves as teachers
(Wheeler, 2014)
• UK academics’ conceptions of information literacy,
and pedagogy for information literacy (e.g. Webber
et al., 2005)
• Irish solo librarians’ conceptions of Continuing
Professional Development (Hornung, 2013)
• Older Australians’ experiences of health information
literacy (Yates et al., 2012)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

9. Categories from Hornung’s research
• Category 1 CPD is upskilling for the sake of the
organization/library service (service orientation)
• Category 2 CPD is about developing as a professional
librarian (LIS profession orientation)
• Category 3 CPD is helping you to do all the jobs an
OPL does (OPL orientation)
• Category 4 CPD is when you have learned something
and you want to do things in a better way when you
come back (personal orientation)
• Category 5 CPD is about your development as a
human being (lifelong learning orientation)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

10. Category 1
‘“Well, I did go to one on copyright and it was interesting, but . . . maybe
it would have been more relevant [mentions different library type]
librarian. And we’d be very, very direct and the type of work I do is
very consistent and I’d know things in copyright in terms of what I do.
I feel that I’m very much geared, like the library where I work has made
me, rather than, you know what I mean? I fit into what’s needed in the
organization and adapt to that . . . So I suppose I kind of see myself
more of an information officer rather than a librarian in the more
traditional sense, do you know . . . So, I think I’ve just kind of more
developed with the organization and knowing what that needs rather
than my own needs.”’ (Interviewee 4) (684-5)
Category 5
‘“Mmmmh. . . . for myself, personally, yeah? [Interviewer: Yeah] Oh, your mind
would go numb if you didn’t continue to learn. Everyone should learn for life, I
suppose.”’
(Interviewee 10) (689)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

11. Examining a phenomenographic
study
Andresson, E.K., Willman, A., Sjostrom-Strand, A. and Borglin, G. (2015).
Registered nurses' descriptions of caring: a phenomenographic interview study.
BMC Nursing, 14:16. DOI 10.1186/s12912-015-0067-9
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6955/14/16
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

12. Discussion
• Questions that we already posed
– Think about how the researchers justified/located the
study in the overall context of the historical development
of nursing and some current challenges.
– How does the account of methods relates to your ideas
about how to conduct research?
– Raise any questions you would like to ask e.g. clarifying
terminology
• Discuss them in groups, then share in discussion
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

13. Carrying out a phenomenographic
study
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

14. Identifying the research question
This will be in the form of:
What are the qualtatively different ways in which [the
population] conceive of/ experience [the phenomenon]
“The focus of this study was to describe the variation
in how nurses could conceive, understand and
conceptualise the phenomenon of caring” (Andersson
et al, 2015)

15. Selecting the sample
• Identify target population
• Purposive sample
• Try to get variation (you may not know what the
factors in conceiving differently are, but think about
factors which might cause variation: these will vary
depending on the phenomenon studied)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

16. Phenomenographic interviewing
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

17. Key issues
• Data normally normally gathered in semi structured
interviews
• Always circling round the main research question
(including asking it directly!) – sometimes talk about
a spiral process
• Empathy in interviewing
• Bracketing your own views (setting them to one
side); vital not to “lead” interviewee’s thinking
• Ashworth and Lucas (2000) useful article
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

18. Interviewing as a learning experience (see Hornung Salha
& Webber: observations on 3 studies)
• Interviewees mentioned how interviews changed
their thinking
• Interview as a learning experience for both
interviewer and interviewee
• Relationship between interviewer and interviewee
changed
• The setting influenced the quality of the relationship
and of the interview
• Cultural issues & existing relationships need to be
taken into account
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

19. Phenomenographic analysis
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

20. Analysis has to reveal 2 things
• Referential aspect (what is being experienced; what
it means): Categories of description, each
category describing one experience/ conception
• Structural aspect (how the phenomenon is
experienced): Outcome space showing how the
categories are related, including the dimensions of
variation that link and separate the conceptions
• We will focus on identifying categories in this
session
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

21. Process of analysis
• The most difficult, time-consuming part! “my
phenomenographic research odyssey” (Joseph Essel)
• Iterative process
• Remembering always to focus on quotations: these
exemplify meaning they are not just illustrative
• May be useful to start with one or a few transcripts
• Useful to have team or fellow researcher to challenge
each others’ ideas once you start proposing categories
• Generally categories start emerging before structure,
but again this is iterative
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

22. Pictures copyright Eva Hornung

23. Pictures copyright
Eva Hornung

24. • Many themes associated with the phenomenon may
emerge
• You are looking for the ones in focal awareness,
the ones that are returned to
• Therefore numerous themes may be identified
initially, but dropped in the final analysis
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

25. 3 criteria for categories
• They must be qualitatively distinctive
• They should be structurally linked (possibly
hierarchically)
• There should be the minimum number of categories
that can capture the variations in experience or
conception
(Marton and Booth, 1997: 125)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

26. Boon, Johnston &
Webber 2006
TranscriptsInterview Atlas/TI
Interviewee
Discussion, debate,
and analysis
Atlas/TI data
(charts/graphs)
Reading, annotating,
highlighting, selecting
quotes, and concept-
mapping
Interviewer
Reflecting, distilling
and drafting
Example research process
Categories and
outcome space

27. Readings re: analysis
• 2 books published by RMIT (Bowden and Walsh,
2000; Bowden and Green, 2005)
• Methods chapters from PhD theses
• Data analysis section in Lupton (2004)
• Marton and Booth (1997)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

28. Exercise: Transcript analysis
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

29. • Identify quotations which you think exemplify some
aspect of the interviewee’s conception(s) of
information literacy
– Individually read through the transcript and mark things
out
• Compare and discuss what you have discovered
– Agreement/ disagreement about what are significant
quotations
– Do they exemplify one or more conceptions?
– How might you start to categorise the conceptions?
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

30. How you could use
phenomenography in your own work
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

31. Reasons for understanding
phenomenography
• Gaining insight into information and healthcare
practice from existing phenomenographic research
• Carrying out your own research
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

32. Applications of phenomenographic research
• Variation theory: having identified how learners’
conceive of a subject, you design learning that
enables them to experience the variations
• Workplace training & education (e.g. studies of how
patients’ experience illnesses - useful for training
nurses)
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

33. Sheila Webber
Information School
University of Sheffield
s.webber@shef.ac.uk
Twitter & SL: Sheila Yoshikawa
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/
Orcid ID 0000-0002-2280-9519
Bill Johnston
Honorary Research Fellow
University of Strathclyde
b.johnston@strath.ac.uk

34. References and readings
• Ashworth, P. and Lucas, U. (2000). Achieving empathy and engagement: a practical
approach to the design, conduct and reporting of phenomenographic research. Studies in
Higher Education, 25(3), 295-308.
• Boon, S., Johnston, B. and Webber, S. (2007). A phenomenographic study of English
faculty's conceptions of information literacy. Journal of Documentation, 63 (2), 204-228.
• Bowden, J.A. & Green, P. (Eds.) (2005). Doing developmental phenomenography.
Melbourne, Australia: RMIT University Press.
https://universitypress.rmittraining.com/doing-developmental-phenomenography
• Bowden, J. and Walsh, E. (2000). Phenomenography. Melbourne, Australia: RMIT
University Press.
• Hornung, E. (2013). On your own, but not alone: one-person librarians in Ireland and their
perceptions of continuing professional development. Library Trends, 61 (3), 675-702.
• Hornung, E., Salha, S. and Webber, S. (2014). Phenomenographic interviews as a
learning process. https://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/webber-hornung-salha-ss
• Lupton, M. (2004) The learning connection: information literacy and the student
experience. Adelaide, Australia: Auslib Press.
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015

35. • Marton, F., & Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
• Sjostrom, B. and Dahlgren, L. (2002). Applying phenomenography in nursing
research. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 40(3), 339-345.
• Stenfors-Hayes, T., Hult, H. & Dahlgren, M. (2013). A phenomenographic approach
to research in medical education. Medical Education, 47, 261–270.
• Webber, S., Boon, S. & Johnston, B. (2005). A comparison of UK academics’
conceptions of information literacy in two disciplines: English and Marketing. Library
and Information Research, 29(93), 4-15.
• Wheeler, E. (2014). Investigating academic librarians’ perceptions of their own
teaching skills. Unpublished MA disseration. Sheffield, England: University of
Sheffield. http://dagda.shef.ac.uk/dispub/dissertations/2013-
14/External/Wheeler_130117630.pdf see also
https://www.slideshare.net/EmilyWheeler/teaching-or-training
• Yates, C., Partridge, H., & Bruce, C. (2012). Exploring information experiences
through phenomenography. Library and Information Research, 36 (112), 96–119.
• Yates, C., Stoodley, I., Partridge, H., Bruce, C., Cooper, H., Day, G., & Edwards, S.
(2012). Exploring health information use by older Australians within everyday life.
Library Trends, 60 (3), 460-478.
Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2015