Content uploaded by Llewellyn Mann
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Llewellyn Mann
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Using phenomenography to investigate different ways of experiencing sustainable design
Abstract and Figures
This paper reports research conducted on the variation in experiences of sustainable design in practice. The experiences with sustainable design of a group of twenty-two engineers and nonengineers were investigated empirically. This revealed five qualitatively different ways of experiencing sustainable design. These have implications for both improving future practice, and the education of students about sustainable design.
Figures - uploaded by Llewellyn Mann
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Llewellyn Mann
Content may be subject to copyright.
... The researcher is needs to be aware that the experiences of participants may be counter-intuitive to his or her personal perceptions (Mann, Dall'Alba, & Radcliffe, 2007). Therefore care was taken, through re-reading of transcripts, to prevent ascribing meanings from the researcher's perspective rather than capturing the meanings of the participants (Sin, 2010, p. 316). ...
... The relationship between the categories can also be taken as a hierarchical relationship. The hierarchical relationships between the categories are not value judgments from 'better' to 'worse' (Mann, Dall'Alba & Radcliffe, 2007), but rather a consideration of those categories that are more comprehensive; providing an overarching group. The outcome space can also represent a developmental progression, showing how one category explains another (Yates et al., 2012). ...
... The outcome space does not represent all the ways in which a phenomenon is experienced, but the collective way a particular group experiences the phenomenon (Yates et al.,106). Diagrams, tables, pictures or metaphors can be used to illustrate the outcome space, and thus, a reflection of the phenomenon (Mann, Dall'Alba & Radcliffe, 2007). ...
Listening to the voices of learners, also referred to as ‘student voice’, ‘pupil voice’ or ‘insider
perspective’, is an aspect of inclusive education research that views learners as experts on their
own lives, and provides insight into school subcultures that are relatively inaccessible to adults.
This study listened to the voices of eleven young schooling mothers to find out the factors that
help or hinder their successful completion of high school.
A participatory methodology was used to listen to learners’ voices. The study’s model of
inclusive research involved using a participatory approach in which the young schooling mothers
assumed the role of co-researchers. The multiple data collection methods employed recognise
the values of community, respect for diversity and belonging also enabled inclusive engagement
by building on the participants' strengths and encouraged meaningful participation. I collected
data using cellphone messaging, learners’ journals, interviews, focus group discussions and
video interviews. The multiple opportunities provided to the learners to speak about their school
experiences highlighted the efficacy of the methods and revealed the learners’ preferences. Data
was analysed using phenomenography, an approach that identified the qualitatively different
ways in which the experiences of the young schooling mothers could be understood.
The study found that learner-managed methods (cell phone messaging, journaling and learners’
video interviews) provided unique and authentic perspectives into the young mothers’ private
lives. The learners stated that they felt included in school by being involved in the research and
by voicing their experiences of school as young schooling mothers. The young schooling
mothers experienced school and schooling as rapidly changing experiences of inclusion,
exclusion and marginalisation. The learners identified situations when they could be treated as
both the same as, and different from other learners. Recommendations to ensure the learners
successful completion of high school include a differentiated recognition of difference approach
and a review of policy based on a non-judgmental construction of young motherhood.
Key Terms: inclusive education, inclusion, voice research, young schooling mothers,
phenomenography, exclusion, marginalisation, high school
... What people think and externalize is not always clear, but the experiences a subject undergoes are very revealing and help to understand the phenomenon we are interested in learning about. This way of understanding reality is phenomenography's main contribution to interpretivist studies (MANN et al., 2007). ...
... The data was mostly constructed via interviews, as according to Mann et al. (2007), the construction of phenomenographic data leans particularly on in-depth interviews. Document analysis and unsystematic observation were also performed, to complement the information. ...
... According to Mann et al. (2007), ...
This is a phenomenographic study with the objective of mapping the variations in a group of managers’ conceptions about the meaning of Fair Play, in order to identify the competencies associated with these con ceptions. The purpose was to understand the experience of these actors so as to meet the demands of an organization that establishes Fair Play as a general guideline. As its main results, the research revealed three central ways of conceiving of Fair Play: as a rule, as transparency and as justice. The managers’ competencies represent the materialization of these conceptions. The study reinforces that learning about the differences in conceptions can be a path towards achieving more assertive practices for developing Fair Play competencies.
... Empirical research consistently illustrates the importance of problem formulation abilities in engineering design. Studies have shown significant correlations between problem formulation activities and design success and expertise [15], reflective practice [6], adaptive expertise [24][25], and more holistic approaches to sustainable design [26]. For example, in a study comparing engineering freshmen and seniors designing a fictitious playground, seniors gathered more information about the problem across more categories such as budget, safety, maintenance, materials, and labor [27][28]; a similar trend emerged from a study on the information gathering activities of practicing engineering experts [29]. ...
... This emphasizes a philosophy of doing more with less, generating less waste and pollution, using renewable rather than non-renewable resources, minimizing the harmful affects on human health and the environment, and working on the 'right' things rather than trying to make the 'wrong' ones less 'bad' [20,35]. This expands the scope under consideration from the primary purpose of a product or system to consider the whole-what its goals and potential effects are, both immediate and wide-ranging, with respect to both time and place [26]. This view of sustainable design emphasizes the need for cross-disciplinary teams and systems thinking that links resources, infrastructures, people, and society. ...
... A recent empirical investigation provides further support for the relationship between problem formulation and sustainable design [26]. Twentytwo practitioners (practicing engineers and other professionals many of whom worked across multiple disciplines) were interviewed about their experiences with sustainable design and the resulting transcripts were analysed using a phenomenographical approach. ...
Every day engineers are confronted with complex grand challenges. Grand challenges related to natural disasters represent a class of complex problems that require working across multiple disciplines and involve not just solving the immediate problem but designing long-term sustainable systems. In this paper, we present exploratory work to characterize students' ability to formulate cross-disciplinary problems for a complex, contextualized, and cross-disciplinary disaster relief scenario. This includes a description of the study implemented in three global contexts, data collection, analysis, and results including a discussion of the utility of the scenario tool to distinguish group differences. The paper concludes with implications for research, instruction, and assessment.
... 1081). Scholars report phenomenographic studies commonly reside in education research; e.g. the different ways learning, and teaching is experienced (Mann et al., 2007;Marton & Pang, 2006;Stolz, 2020 Additionally, the researcher taught for three years in the Biomedical Engineering department for their junior senior lab equivalent. This opportunity allowed the researcher to compare how junior-senior labs compared across engineering departments. ...
Pursuing a STEM degree, especially engineering, is grimly portrayed in STEM culture as surviving through shared suffering and hardships (Godfrey & Parker, 2010; Wolffram et al., 2009) or as “chilly” (Morris & Daniel, 2008), especially for underrepresented students. If the purpose of education is to prepare students to be successful in school and beyond, then we must understand how students are successful. An alternative to negatively positioning students – what students are missing or need to survive – is to positively position students by studying how to support student success. Rather than identifying barriers to success, we can study the positive factors for student success. Therefore, this study reports how students experienced success and the factors they attributed to success.
Broadly, this study sought to understand what constituted success, the factors students attributed to success, and how students from different groups experienced success. One overarching goal of this study was to describe student success as defined by engineering students. This study aimed to better understand how engineering students experience and view success both in the classroom and beyond. More precisely, this work investigated what students identified as successful, how the meaning of success changed over time, and the factors and characteristics students attributed to success and being successful. This work emphasized qualitative methods to richly capture the essence of success by understanding student experiences in depth. Thereby, this work mapped the multiple paths to student success by describing how chemical engineering student experiences of success varied across GPA, gender, and race. The research questions that guided the investigation of student success and how they experienced success differently were:
1. What are chemical engineering students’ experiences of success and being an engineer?
a. How do chemical engineering students’ experiences differ by race and gender?
2. How do chemical engineering students position themselves as successful engineers?
This work followed a phenomenographic approach that implemented a qualitative research design and multiple methods to answer the research questions. Participants were recruited from upper-level (3xxx- & 4xxx) chemical engineering courses level and given an incentive ($10 Amazon gift card) for participating in the survey and interview.
The multiple methods used in this study were: an online survey (Qualtrics), and semi-structured interviews following an interview protocol. The Qualtrics survey collected the students’ consent, demographic information (race, gender, GPA, rank), and scores from two validated instruments: grit and engineering identity. Semi-structured interviews conducted over 1-3 hours captured the students’ experiences of success following a tailored interview protocol. Each student was virtually interviewed and recorded using Zoom. The recorded interview was transcribed and shared with the participant for member checking. The constant comparative method (CCM) was utilized to enrich the quality of data measurement and analysis; data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously.
The member-checked transcript was analyzed in multiple ways following a phenomenographic approach. First the transcript was thematically analyzed and iteratively coded (pre-coded and indexed). After comparing the differences in student experiences by gender and race, the positioning diamond was applied.
Students portrayed success as multi-faceted with a range of meanings. Collectively, the students’ understanding of success changed at least once during their collegiate studies. While initially positioning success as equating to getting good grades, students later identified other factors to success and (re)positioned success as obtaining their degree or being employed as an “engineer.” Additionally, students positioned success as accomplishing goals, feeling gratified, or fostering the success for others. Success was experienced and expressed in different ways across gender and race. The summation of actions that students attributed to success demonstrate how they self-identify and are recognized by members of the community as successful.
For the field of engineering education to become more inclusive beyond the majority white male student, the experiences of underrepresented groups must be better understood. Hearing the stories of these students can inform policies and educators to better understand how students conceptualize success in academic settings.
... Many researchers have explored these seven engineering design experience elements, including developing conception generation skills (Daly et al., 2012), the benefits of model building for dealing with ambiguity (Lemons et al., 2010), and the benefits of reflection practices in learning engineering design (Adams, 2003). Additionally, some researchers have found that design courses should move from an "instructor-transfers-knowledge" model towards a "developing-a-professional-knowledge" model, where students are asked to take charge of their learning and needs (Mann et al, 2007). Crismond and Adams (2012) developed the informed design teaching and learning matrix which outlines specific learning practices between novice and expert designers and also provides suggested teaching approaches. ...
... In the engineering education community, many efforts are spent on developing phenomenographical approaches to problems, but almost none are spent on phenomenological or existential approaches to problems. The issue at hand may be two-fold: first, phenomenography as a research paradigm has permeated design and other research disciplines within engineering education in recent years; (29,30) second, phenomenography lends itself to a study of internally related categories between individuals of study, whereas phenomenology may not at all; and third, while phenomenography tends to focus on the variation in an experience among a group of people, phenomenology aims for a vigorous description of the experiential impetus itself. It can be conjectured why phenomenography is an easier choice for coding-intensive methods of interpretation, as while it is time consuming, its primary focus is the internally related categories that develop naturally in response to some outside force. ...
... Alguns estudos fenomenográficos indicam a mudança de concepções como forma essencial para desenvolver a competência dos profissionais (Dall'Alba, 2004;Dall'Alba & Sandberg, 2006;Dall'Alba, 2009;Sandberg & Pinnington, 2009;Mann, Dall'Alba & Radcliffe, 2007). Contudo, não foram encontrados estudos empíricos que identificassem gatilhos para as mudanças nas concepções de trabalho. ...
Phenomenography is still little used in Brazil despite its great potential for competence studies. Research in this field has show that the individuals’ conceptions of work direct their learning so that they perform it well, since it is these conceptions forge, constitute, and organize attributes (knowledge, skills, and others) used to accomplish it. In order to develop professional competence, researchers suggest that individuals should move from less superficial work conceptions to more comprehensive ones. However, there is a lack of studies that empirically identify the triggers of this change. This article is intended to fill such gap. Its objective was to analyze the process of change in working conceptions of a group of Local Innovation Agents. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed by means of phenomenographic protocols. The “pursuit of goals” and the “desire to carry out quality work” were identified as triggers of changes in conceptions’ changes and the development of new competencies.
There is a consensus that engineering design practice and education needs to change, to address the sustainability challenges facing the planet. This shift towards sustainability engineering requires illustrating successful design practices that embed sustainability values, particularly designs that move away from the current focus on input–output efficiency, towards eco-social and socio-technical approaches to design. We present three cases where the designs illustrate such a widening of the design space, to include parameters beyond input–output efficiency and optimization for profit, and leading to innovative socio-technical solutions. These cases suggest that the socio-technical connection is highly plastic, allowing for a range of ways in which the ecological, social, and technical could come together to form innovative and sustainable solutions. They illustrate a novel design principle – ‘Solving for Pattern’ – where the designs seek to address many problems simultaneously in an interconnected way. These cases indicate that designing for sustainability requires a broadening of the roles and identities of engineering designers, to include themes wider than engineering sciences and mathematics. Including these and similar case studies in engineering curricula could support the shift towards such a broader engineering design identity, where sustainability is a key component of design practice.
This paper presents integrated research and education methods for exploring how to engage and evaluate Navajo students in culturally-contextualized engineering design curricula. Under the theoretical frameworks of social constructivism and culturally relevant pedagogy, this study proposes to: (1) explore the ways in which Navajo students and Navajo professionals experience and understand engineering design in the context of their culture, community, and society through a phenomenographic approach; (2) conduct a design-based research study on the development of culturally-contextualized theory of learning and curriculum modules that will be piloted in several schools in the Navajo Nation; and (3) create and pilot tools to evaluate Navajo students’ experience of engineering design. The primary research questions are: (RQ1) What are the ways in which Navajo students and Navajo professionals experience, understand, and apply engineering design in the context of their culture, community, and society? and (RQ2) How do culturally-contextualized curricula affect the experience and understanding of engineering design, sense of cultural identity, and cultural attitudes of Navajo students?
Engineering professional societies, engineering education thought leaders, and academics in engineering education have established the need to promote systems thinking in engineering students so they can deal effectively with the future complexity of engineering practice. Universities and schools have taught systems thinking, but currently there are limitations in measuring the effectiveness of these instructional interventions. Current research on assessment states that it is necessary to align modern theories of learning, the task and the interpretation of the outcomes from the task. Theories about the development of systems thinking are still scarce and are not based in modern theories of learning. This work intends to contribute to closing this gap by identifying the variation of experiences people have when dealing with problems in complex systems. The research approach used to answer this question is phenomenography (Marton's approach). Participants will be asked to perform a task, and each common way of dealing with the task will be identified as a category. These categories will be hierarchically arranged, yielding a developmental path. A developmental path explaining the development of systems thinking will facilitate the development of tools to assess the level of systems thinking which impacts academy and industry.
Full Paper available via QUT ePrints (http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Desha,_Cheryl.html)
Marton, F. 1981. Studying Conceptions of Reality ‐ A Metatheoretical Note. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 25,159‐169. In accordance with a line of thought developed by Smedslund, it is argued that there are two distinctively different approaches to the study of thinking: either we take logicality for granted and study understanding, or we assume understanding and make logicality an object of investigation. In terms of this dichotomy we can conclude that a major shift has taken place during Piaget's scientific career, from the first to the second approach. In this paper the case is made for the first approach and it is argued that descriptions of the qualitatively different ways in which people experience and understand various aspects of reality make up an autonomous field of inquiry.