Abstract:
The teacher-student relationship has been a central concern to educators and the focus of much educational research. While theoretical understandings of the teacher-student relationship exist, phenomenological research on the 'lived experiences' of this relationship is not so abundant (Barnacle, 2001). This paper reports on the challenges of 'being-in' phenomenological research with a view to recovering the teacher-student relationship from the 'taken-for-granted' abyss.
Focusing on how student teachers and lecturers experience their classroom world, this teacher educator engaged in a hermeneutical process which might uncover the, previously obscured, phenomenon of relationship. Challenged to 'see' the expected and other habits of theorising, the phenomenological researcher searches for meanings within the lived experiences "in a process of insightful invention, discovery, or disclosure ... [an] act of 'seeing' meaning" (van Manen, 1990, p. 129).
The challenges of this research approach include the intensity of the lived experience of conducting the research itself, the meditative atunement of the researcher with the phenomenon, and the process of walking in a research process that is mindful of one's own historicity (Gadamer, 1975). This researcher considers the depth of deliberation within this particular research approach honours the centrality and humanity of the teacher-student relationship in education.
Focusing on how student teachers and lecturers experience their classroom world, this teacher educator engaged in a hermeneutical process which might uncover the, previously obscured, phenomenon of relationship. Challenged to 'see' the expected and other habits of theorising, the phenomenological researcher searches for meanings within the lived experiences "in a process of insightful invention, discovery, or disclosure ... [an] act of 'seeing' meaning" (van Manen, 1990, p. 129).
The challenges of this research approach include the intensity of the lived experience of conducting the research itself, the meditative atunement of the researcher with the phenomenon, and the process of walking in a research process that is mindful of one's own historicity (Gadamer, 1975). This researcher considers the depth of deliberation within this particular research approach honours the centrality and humanity of the teacher-student relationship in education.