As in the grounded theory, the views of a number of participants are collected, but instead of theorizing from these views, phenomenologists describe what all the participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon, with an aim to reduce their experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence. So, the aim is not an explanation or analysis, but a description of the essence of people’s experiences as they are lived every day, which requires the researcher’s bracketing or setting aside their own experiences as much as possible to take a fresh perspective towards the phenomenon studied (Creswell, 2007, p. 59). The procedure involves the following steps:
- identifying the phenomenon;
- the researchers identify their own experiences with the phenomenon, as well as what they expect to discover, and then deliberately put aside these ideas, thus bracketing their own views with an aim to be as objective as possible, and see the experience from the eyes of the person who has lived the experience;
- selecting the participants who have experienced the phenomenon. It is recommended that from 5 to 25 individuals be interviewed;
- collecting information, most often through interviews or multiple interviews, but the participants may also write about their experiences. According to Moustakas (1994), there are two broad, general questions that have to be asked in order to perform phenomenological research: (1) What have you experienced in terms of the phenomenon? (2) What contexts or situations have typically influenced or affected your experiences of the phenomenon? Of course, they may be followed by other open-ended questions;
- data analysis – highlighting significant statements, sentences or quotes that provide an understanding of the overall experience;
- collapsing these statements into broader themes, then going back through the transcripts to look at the themes more closely;
- describing the essence of the experience, i.e. the common experiences of the individuals studied (Creswell et al., 2007, p. 255).
In order to carry out a phenomenological study, the researcher needs to have at least some understanding of the broader philosophical assumptions. The participants need to be carefully selected to make sure that they have experienced the phenomenon in question. Bracketing personal experiences may be difficult for the researcher to do (Creswell, 2007, p. 62).
