Deconstructing the Phenomenological House: A Philosophical Tool to Learning Descriptive Phenomenological Analysis

Utilizing Giorgian psychological phenomenological descriptive analysis and the presenters own research journey, this presentation will provide participants with new tools for designing, conducting, and defending descriptive qualitative studies. Descriptive phenomenology explores the universal structural “how” of experienced phenomena (Giorgi, 2009). Due to its complex philosophical base and limited popularity in research fields including education, counseling, and psychology, new qualitative researchers who want to conduct descriptive studies are often left struggling to find answers to the complex questions that arise while navigating the methodology. This leaves the potential for descriptive studies to include concepts and practices which philosophically conflict, ultimately threatening the validity of the work. The goals of this presentation are to (a) provide the audience with an example of how threats to validity arise during descriptive phenomenological research using the presenter’s own experience as an example; (b) increase the audience’s awareness and understanding of descriptive phenomenology using a new metaphoric tool “the phenomenological house” which was created by the presenter during their research journey; (c) demonstrate how this tool can be utilized in learning and teaching descriptive phenomenological research methodology. Ultimately, this presentation intends to provide a pathway for contemporary qualitative researchers to navigate descriptive phenomenology and enhance the quality of future research