Lived experience is another term used in relation to phenomenology (Bresler, 1995). As van Manen (1990) argues, phenomenology is the study of everyday life and lived experience, and obtains a reflection of that everyday life and everyday experience. According to Dilthey (1985, cited in van Manen, 1990), lived experience is ‘immediate, pre-reflective consciousness of life: reflexive or self-given awareness which is, as awareness, unaware of itself’ (p. 36). This suggests that lived experience occurs out of direct contact with things in the world (Barnacle, 2004). The concept of lived experience has provided me with
possibilities to explore participant EFL teachers’ experience of the reform as well as my own relevant personal experience. As Barnacle (2004) says, the value of experience is extended to researchers’ own particular experiences.
I have drawn on the idea of lived experienced as referring to the professional experience of EFL teachers in secondary schools, experience which is related to their teaching and learning practice in classrooms. I have investigated participating EFL teachers’ perceptions and attitudes to their experience of the current EFL curriculum reform and ways in which it is linked to globalization, and
phenomenology has provided me with an intellectual context in which to conduct my research. It also foregrounds ‘its logic and criteria’ (Crotty, 1998, p. 3), in that it has enabled me to structure the research through its various phases. I have taken the study of the lived experience of the teachers concerned in the implementation of the reform under study as both the starting point and the end point for my research, which is in line with van Manen’s (1990) views on lived experience.
I have already referred to Ehrich’s (2003) taking issue with phenomenology as a research methodology even as a number of researchers have turned to it in the conduct of their research (Barkway, 2001). Criticism has nonetheless emerged, particularly in relation to the idea of phenomenology having lost its essence when it was adopted as a methodology in qualitative research (Les, 2005). Crotty (1996) argues that most phenomenological-based research is not absolute, as it is descriptive, subjective and not critical. Bourdieu (1977) claims that
phenomenology is flawed as it attempts to comprehend ‘the world as self-evident’, ‘taken-for-granted’ through describing lived experience ( p.3). These arguments are based on the concept of phenomenology somehow having missed or neglected an important research process: to study phenomena objectively (Willis, 1999).
Phenomenology as advocated by researchers such as Boss (1983) proposes a strict study of phenomenon and a generation of meaning via directly visible experience, and this has generated some discussion and debate among scholars in relation to their understanding of phenomenology (Budd, 2005; Crotty, 1996; Danaher & Briod, 2005; Grant, 2008; Groenewald, 2004; Lyotard, 1991; Moustakas, 1994). Such scholars argue that phenomenological studies exclude internal things such as feelings, perceptions, and attitudes, as Leech (1989) argues. Such discussions represent phenomenology as not being an appropriate methodology in qualitative research (Willis, 1999).
In response to such discussions, I have drawn upon Giorgi’ s (2000) view, as he contends that choosing phenomenology is an appropriate methodological approach as it enables the researcher to examine subjective experience objectively. I have also drawn upon Creswell (2007), Moustakas (1994) and van Manen’ s (1990) views of phenomenology. These scholars argue that phenomenology focuses not only on the processes of description of experience, but also on interpretation of experience. Their perspectives have provided me with a means of engaging the interrelationships of subjective and objective experience in developing my own understanding of the implementation of the reform under study as suggested by Ladki (2005). I have also drawn on the work of Grich (2007) to explore possibilities of research methods and strategies to investigate EFL teachers’ experience. One of the strategies I have used in my research is to turn to the lifeworld existentials identified by van Manen (1990) for the purpose of data analysis. In relation to an interpretation of experience, van Manen (1990) provides a useful conceptual tool for researchers to explore the nature of lived experience with his concept of life world existentials. These are lived space, lived time, lived body and lived other. Drawing on this concept of four existentials of lifeworld serves to engage data analysis as contributing to a deeper understanding of lived experience, as van Manen (1990) argues.
Lived space
Lived space is a space in which people feel that they might be influenced by their accustomed or familiar working, leisure, social or studying environment (van Manen, 1990). Lived space is ‘the felt space’, and it is, in a general sense, ‘the world or landscape in which human beings move and find themselves at home’, rather than a mathematical space relating to height, length and depth (van Manen, 1990, p. 102). Given the sort of familiarity involved in occupying lived space, if that space is in some way changed, feelings may be affected, and ways of thinking may be influenced in any number of ways, as van Manen (1990) suggests. I have considered lived space as participant EFL teachers’ felt space in which EFL teachers have been influenced by those environments, including the global and the Chinese contexts in combination with the regional and the school contexts, so that I have positioned the reform in both macro and micro contexts. I have discussed such issues further in Chapter 7 in relation to a general picture of the global and the Chinese contexts. I have detailed my discussions on the global, the Chinese and school contexts in Chapter 8, and discussed the local contexts in Chapter 9.
Lived time
Lived time is subjective time, not clock time or objective time, ‘the time that appears to speed up when people enjoy themselves, or slow down when they feel bored or when they are anxious, as in the dentist’s chair’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 104). Lived time is also ‘a temporal way of being in the world’ (van Manen, 1990, p. 104). What is more, lived time can serve as a record of people’s emotions in their lives, part of their lived experience. As far as my research is concerned, lived time is EFL teachers’ temporal lived experience, the time during which they have experienced the reform under study. It includes the past, the present and the future. Examining EFL teachers’ perspectives of lived time allows a dynamic picture of the reform under study to be developed, an exploration of all of which has provided a general picture of development of the reform under study through EFL teachers’
Lived other
Van Manen (1990) suggests, ‘Lived other is the lived relation we maintain with others in the interpersonal space that we share with them’(p. 104). Lived other is a concept that highlights the relationships maintained between participants and those who may influence these participants’ lives and experiences. They include social, organizational, familial membership and surroundings (Eggenberger, 2007). As far as my research is concerned, lived other is the other stakeholders in the EFL reform, who influence EFL teachers’ experience of the reform under study. They include students, parents, principals, and governments, who have provided EFL teachers’ support or pressure, or not, playing an influential role in their lived experience which has been discussed further in Chapter 7 and 9.
Lived body
Lived body is ways in which people physically experience the reality of the world. As van Manen (1990) states, ‘Lived body refers to the phenomenological fact that we are always bodily in the world’ (p. 103). I have not drawn upon considerations of lived body, as I have focused on the reform through EFL teachers’ perceptions and their attitudes, rather than through ways in which they physically experience this reform. This is because the reform under study is an intellectual, pedagogical, social, political, cultural and economic reform, not one that takes up issues of the physical bodies of teachers.
Lived space is the contexts within which the reform under study has been
implemented; lived time is participant EFL teachers’ temporal way of experiencing their implementing the reform under study, and both of these are part of their lived experience. That lived experience is their past and present experience as well as their future expectations. Lived other is the relationship between EFL teachers and other stakeholders in the programs they deliver, and these are students, parents, principals, their own colleagues, and governments. Drawing on the concept of lifeworld existentials in my research has assisted me in developing my own
understanding and analysis of the implementation of this reform. To this end, I have adopted a certain research method, case study with data collected from interviews, a questionnaire and curriculum and policy documents. I have detailed such
considerations in Chapter 5. My focus has been on subjective experience of participants in my research, as suggested by Giorgi (2000), in this instance of the teachers concerned in implementing curriculum reform, as discussed in Chapter 3. A major consideration of my research design has been that of validity, and I have discussed issues related to this below.