From Essences to Orientations: Innovations in Teaching Phenomenologies

Phenomenologists in contemporary times have wrestled with issues of relevancy, practicality and knowledge translation. One way of strategically addressing these concerns presents itself in the way phenomenology is taught to the next generation of practitioners. In a phenomenological research course taught at the University of Georgia, we attempted to meet these challenges by diversifying what is understood as phenomenology and by encouraging students to see the world in innovative, phenomenological ways. Through creative classroom exercises as well as a broadening of the scope of what is deemed phenomenology, our course experimented with ways to help students both engage and elicit material experientially, as well as foster ways of thinking phenomenologically about the materials once gathered. In keeping with the essence of phenomenology, we also attempted to achieve these goals in a novel way while still encouraging students to see these things philosophically. By infusing the teaching of phenomenological research with moments of creativity, novelty, experimentation, and even risk taking, we feel that up and coming phenomenologists may well benefit from an enlivening of philosophy and a more experiential learning environment