Phenomenology

The problem of the current study was the challenges experienced by those living in poverty can be propagated by poor attitudes and lack of empathy among the social service workers tasked with helping them. A key factor in individuals’ attitudes and empathy are their understanding of the experiences of others, as well as an awareness of their personal biases. While poverty simulations can help increase individuals’ awareness of personal biases and difficulties experienced by individuals living in poverty (ILP), little was known about how poverty simulations may influence the perceived social empathy and attitudes of participants who work for local government organizations. Accordingly, the purpose of the current phenomenological study was to examine the perceived effects of a poverty simulation on social service providers working for a local governmental agency tasked with distributing funds to assist ILPs. Specifically, the researcher explored participants’ perceptions of changes in social empathy and attitudes toward ILPs following participation in the Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) poverty simulation exercise. Data were collected via semi structured interviews with 10 social service providers employed at the study site location, who had completed the COPE poverty simulation within the last 6 years. Data were analyzed following Groenewald’s approach to phenomenological analysis. The themes included: Participation in the COPE simulation influenced participants’ attitudes, participation in the COPE simulation influenced participants’ social empathy, and the system is broken, but participants feel disempowered to change it. The subthemes included: Developed an understanding of system flaws, developed an understanding of struggles faced by ILPs, uncovered personal attitudes/biases, the COPE simulation produced emotional reactions among participants, and the COPE simulation created empathy through simulated experiences of poverty.

This study is an informative, phenomenological inquiry, investigating the lived experiences of Black parents and guardians through the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) identification process. Through semi-structured oral interviews, parent questionnaires, and parent journaling, the researcher identified participants’ lived experiences. Data were collected, participant interview responses, parent questionnaires, and parent journal entries were analyzed, a list of significant statements was categorized and grouped into meaning units, and textural, structural, and composite descriptions of the phenomena were identified (Moustakas, 1994). Categories and themes, as well as perceived facilitators and barriers were identified. Review of the literature indicates little research has been conducted in investigating the lived experiences of Black parents through the autism identification process. Recommendations from the study are provided to inform parental training needs and supports, to assist in the facilitation of effective identification, as well as necessary recommendations for how educators and health care professionals can better support Black parents through the ASD identification process.

This phenomenological study explored the role of end-of-course examinations on teachers’ decision-making on curriculum and instruction through a comparative analysis of teachers who taught courses with end-of-course examinations and teachers who taught courses with locally created assessments (LCA). This study examined the experiences of nine teachers in a small school district located on the east-central coast of Florida.
The study’s theoretical framework drew on Bourdieu’s (1972/1977) tools of habitus, capital, practice, and fields to explain the role of education in the reproduction of social system. The study examined how standardized testing shaped teachers’ use of habitus and capital to determine their practice in their curriculum, instruction, relationships in different educational fields, morale, and perspectives on teacher evaluation.

Global research on psychosocial factors related to food allergies and youth have increased significantly over the last decade. A plethora of countries provide literature indicating adolescents with food allergies experience social isolation, depression, anxiety, and fear. Most of the literature however favors parental perspectives with limited studies exploring adolescent subjective perspectives. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of adolescents living with food allergies; the goal was to bring awareness to the ascribed meaning of food allergies from the perspective of adolescents and the impact of living with food allergies from day-to-day. Watson’s caring science and Erikson’s psychosocial theory were guiding frameworks for the study with story theory used to guide individual semi-structured interviews (n=14) (11-14 years). Analysis of data entailed various steps congruent with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Four superordinate themes emerged from the data: (1) Living with Restraints: A Way of Life, (2) Managing Exposure, (3) Experiencing Stigma, and (4) Experiencing Lack of Knowledge. Results indicated adolescents living with food allergies have unique experiences that contribute to psychosocial upheavals and that traditional biological management may be too simplistic for promoting whole adolescent well-being and healthy development. Study findings may contribute to evidence-based interventions that nurture care for the whole adolescent.

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to give voice to an underserved and vulnerable population in Uganda, Africa to advocate for health priorities. Nineteen members of the village of Namagera, identified as a leper colony, were selected by community members and volunteered to participate in every element of this study. Descriptive phenomenology was the guiding philosophy and community-based participatory research methods and photovoice provided the lens for social action. Leininger’s theory of culture care diversity and universality (Leininger & McFarland, 2006) anchored the study in cultural caring and the community nursing practice model (Parker et al., 2020) kept the researcher grounded in the purpose of advancing the science of caring in community nursing. The research team included the researcher, the 19 participants, and six research assistants, who also served as language facilitators. Using photovoice methods, participants identified strengths and needs and used digital cameras to capture health concerns in the community. Eighty photos were analyzed by the participants and priorities were determined. The selected photos were placed on a photo board and shared with the whole community for input. Community members selected the health priorities and ranked them in importance: access to clean water, sanitation, disease, challenges for the elderly and disabled, lack of medical treatment, transportation, unemployment, and protection of the environment. The participants categorized the health priorities into three clusters of themes: basic needs, safety, and social/environmental. The themes were further incorporated into action plans identifying impeding factors for which the community would require outside assistance and promoting factors for which the community could solve themselves. Findings of this study illuminate the emergence of community empowerment: Community members found their voices, identified health priorities, and advocated for solutions.

The purpose of this study was to assess overall life satisfaction of older adult women who have not had children. The study explored the following questions: (1) What is the overall sense of life satisfaction of childfree women over 65? (2) What is the lived experience of being a childfree woman in U.S. society? (3) How does being childfree inform women’s overall life satisfaction? This study utilized a phenomenological research design. Fourteen childfree women over the age of 65 participated in semistructured interviews aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the sense of life satisfaction of childfree women in late life.
The study’s purpose was to look at the lived experiences of childfree older women and further understand their abilities to live fulfilled lives despite the absence of child bearing. This research explored the experiences of women without children and hopefully will inspire future research on the topic as well as inform practice regarding the unique experiences and perspectives of childfree women.

This mixed-methods phenomenological bounded case study sought to uncover how who teachers are as people impacts what they do in their classrooms. The study examined how teachers’ personal lives (e.g., backgrounds and prior knowledge), their experiences with intersectionality (e.g., race, class, gender, and sexual orientation), and professional lives (e.g., pedagogical beliefs and curricular choices) influence one another. The sample for this student consisted of seven high school female English Language Arts teachers who were teaching the required text, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Lee (1960). Through the use of survey questionnaires, interviews, document analysis of unit lesson
plans, and a focus group, a portrait of the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and curriculum design choices emerged. Four key themes emerged in relation to the research questions for this study: (a) whether teachers are teaching with the students in mind, (b) uncovering the power structure of the teaching experience, (c) the role of teaching versus facilitating, and (d) curriculum design focusing on the process of learning versus end products.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand, describe, and
make meaning of the experiences of early childhood educators of young foster care
students. The researcher examined the experiences of teachers regarding the attachment
behaviors of their foster care students. This study also sought to explore how early
childhood teachers implement their curriculum and how they design their classroom
environment to meet the needs of young foster care children.
Data collection and analysis included 20 questionnaires and 20 face-to-face semistructured
interviews. Data analysis consisted of a three step process. The first step began
by reading interviews through a holistic approach. During this step, the researcher read
the entire transcript as a whole before digging deeper. The second step in coding was a
selective reading. In this step, the researcher read through each transcript by finding key
words and/or phrases. The third step in the coding process was a detailed reading. The researcher read the text word-by-word. This step aided the researcher in finding those
words that captured the phenomenon of the teachers.
The researcher found three major overarching themes: social and emotional
behaviors, triad relationship, and classroom accommodations. This study revealed three
main themes: attachment-related behaviors of social and emotional development, teacher
relationship strategies with student and caregiver, and classroom curricular and
environmental adjustments. Within all three of these themes was an underlying theme of
a teacher-as-mother perceived attachment from the teachers. The teacher-as-mother
perceived attachment was embedded in the experiences of the teachers. It is
recommended that this main theme be explored in future research. The experiences of the
teachers were completely based on their experiences in this study. The way they
intervened on behalf of their foster care students did not appear to relate to any
professional development or training; it was entirely based on their experiences. It is
recommended that the arena of early childhood would benefit immensely with a course,
training, or professional development in learning about the foster care system and dealing
with young children in foster care.

The main focus of this dissertation is a discussion of how an artist uses her dance
bodily knowledge to develop in a static art form a more bodily sense of movement. For
this purpose this dissertation examines four clay sculptures by contemporary artist Mary
Frank. The analysis suggests that the uncharacteristic sense of movement displayed in
these works derives from her experiential knowledge of dance. This sense of movement
is achieved through the considered assemblage and inextricable relationship between
Frank’s dance bodily knowledge (body knowledge a dancer acquires through years of
dance practice) and the manipulation of clay, the plastic medium she uses to create these
forms. The study reveals that Frank’s ceramic assemblages of organic shapes resembling
a figure could be related to somatic awareness of arms, legs, torso, hips, and head that
dancers experience while dancing. Similarly, the fluid quality of her ceramic assemblages
and their seamless coexistence with the environment can be correlated to the proprioceptic sensibilities (the reception of stimuli produced within the organism by
movement or tension) that a dancer’s body senses as it navigates through the air and
across the ground managing the pull of gravity. These findings are developed through a
discussion of the philosophic theories on bodily knowledge (knowing in and through the
body) by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michael Polanyi, Edward Casey, Pierre Bourdieu, and
Richard Shusterman, as well as the philosophic theories on dance bodily knowledge (my
own term) developed by Barbara Mettler, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, and Jaana
Parviainen. In addition, Mary’s sculptures are compared to traditionally built sculptures
to illustrate the bodily sensory quality of the sense of movement of her structures.
Although the scope of this study is limited to the application of dance bodily
knowledge onto sculpture, perceived through the clay sculptures of Mary Frank, this
research adds to the debate on the interrelationships between dance education and the
arts, the body and institutions of learning, and the body and society. It suggests that dance
practice and introspection of one’s body movement affects how one perceives the world
around us and therefore how one reacts and expresses oneself on to the world.

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of intuition as experienced by first-time mothers. A phenomenological approach employing van Manen's research method was utilized. Six participants described their experiences of being first-time mothers. Seven essential themes emerged: Naturalness, Knowing, Connection, Value, Delivering Comfort, Structure, and Transformation. These themes describe the lived experience as the essence of Naturalness to facilitate Knowing the Connection to one's infant is Valuing intuition in Delivering Comfort that is without Structure and involves self Transformation. The unity of meaning discovered from the data is stated as: The Illumination of Intuition to First-Time Mothers and Experiencing the Presence of Other. The results of this study suggest that the recognition of intuition to first-time mothers is significant to nursing and nursing practice.