University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2013 Conversations with a Phenomenologist: A Phenomenologically Oriented Case Study of Instructional Planning Karen Anne Franklin [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Educational Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Franklin, Karen Anne, "Conversations with a Phenomenologist: A Phenomenologically Oriented Case Study of Instructional Planning. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1721 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Karen Anne Franklin entitled "Conversations with a Phenomenologist: A Phenomenologically Oriented Case Study of Instructional Planning." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Educational Psychology and Research. Katherine H. Greenberg, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Barbara Thayer-Bacon, Schuyler Huck, Sandra P. Thomas, Howard R. Pollio Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Conversations with a Phenomenologist: A Phenomenologically Oriented Case Study of Instructional Planning A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Karen Anne Franklin May 2013 Copyright © 2013 by Karen Anne Franklin All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Donna J. Lambert and John P. Lambert, my first and most effective teachers; and to Cary M. Franklin and Brandon M. Beaudry, my lifelong and favorite co-learners. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation would not be possible without the generous spirit of Howard R. Pollio who opened himself and his practice to scrutiny and documentation by a team of researchers, including me. I thank you for countless hours of conversation and for all of the years you kept existential phenomenology alive in Knoxville. I will continue to look for text that sings and that which is opaque and can never return from the polymorphic mindedness you opened for me. I also thank your seminar students, from the fall of 2010 and 2011, for opening up their learning process and sharing their growth along the way. To my project collaborators; Katherine H. Greenberg, Sandra P. Thomas, Tiffany J. Dellard, Kristina M. Plaas, Jennifer D. Stewart-Glenn, and Brian K. Sohn; and all of the participants in the Tuesday Phenomenology Research Group, I offer my deep gratitude for all you have given and all you have taken. Participation with this fine group of scholars has been the highlight of my doctoral studies. For Tiffany J. Dellard, especially, for sharing this journey and all that it entails with me. I will treasure your friendship and your counsel always. To my committee members, I thank you most sincerely for your examples of authenticity and congruence in your teaching, research, and scholarship. Dr. Kathy Greenberg has guided and mentored me throughout these past six years. I thank you for your commitment to teachers everywhere and for always keeping the focus on their successes and challenges. Dr. Sky Huck welcomed me to the university and treated me like a valued peer from our first encounter. You may never know the power that your encouragement and regard mean to me. Dr. Barbara Thayer-Bacon made educational philosophy my passion and welcomed me into her courses over and over and over again. Your tireless efforts to help me understand, appraise, and communicate philosophical principles are the reason I have anything coherent to say. Dr. Sandra Thomas has been the regular and constant voice of the phenomenological attitude for me over the past several years. I thank you for your commitment to this work and for the leadership you offer to all of us, regardless of our disciplinary affiliations. While driven to pursue higher education, I have sometimes taken for granted the commitment an entire family makes to one member‟s education. My husband, Cary M. Franklin, has supported me in every sense of the word for nearly twenty years. Thank you for believing in me, praying with me, encouraging me, and being patient with me. You bring so much joy to my life. For my son, Brandon M. Beaudry, who inspired me to become a professional educator iv through the joys, struggles, and triumphs of being your mother. I will always treasure the memories of reading great books with you. I admire the courage you demonstrated then and the growth God blessed me to witness. You have become such a fine man and my heart bursts with pride over the type of human being you are. For my mother, Donna J. Lambert, I know you continue to guide me from above. Thank you for that afternoon at the kitchen table with your teenage daughter, writing out the steps to becoming a doctor. You are my grounding and my soaring. To my father, John P. Lambert, and his wife, Elsie, I look forward to returning to our Sunday mornings and thank you both for your support and friendship. To my mother-in-law, Jacquie Niersbach, I thank you for assuming the role of mother and for treating me as one of your own. My siblings have paved the way for me to pursue formal education while leading adult lives with adult responsibilities and have demonstrated so much encouragement and support. Cathy, David, and Ginny are excellent role models for post-secondary education and for me personally. Thank you for your support and encouragement. For Michael and Patti, I miss you and look forward to meeting again. Finally, to my inner circle of friends, at the „Clubs‟ in Joliet and Knoxville, especially to Carol and Roy; I thank you for your friendship and company along this journey. I look forward to more book club meetings and conversations as we pursue knowledge of God‟s will for us and the power to carry that out. I am honored to be counted among this amazing circle of friends. v Abstract This dissertation investigates the instructional planning practices of one university professor as he prepared to teach weekly classes for a seminar in existential phenomenology. I applied the phenomenological pedagogy of van Manen and the phenomenological philosophy of Merleau- Ponty, Husserl, Heidegger, and Gadamer in order to understand the process this professor undertook as he planned instruction for his graduate course. The study is a phenomenologically oriented, illustrative, and descriptive case study of this professor‟s planning practices over the course of one semester in the context in which those practices occurred. Findings from this study demonstrate that Dr. Pollio‟s instructional planning is grounded in his ontological orientation as a phenomenologist. The ground theme, “But I‟m a Phenomenologist!” framed Pollio‟s considerations as he carried out the instructional planning for his seminar. Six figural themes describe the epistemological and methodological tools of Pollio‟s instructional planning: “What Can They Experience in Class?” Playing with Possibilities, “Blow them Away!” “A Good Question,” “All the Stuff,” and Going with the Flow. Additional data widened and deepened an understanding of Pollio‟s instructional planning through examination of the experience of the seminar for a variety of participants. These experiences were categorized as: “Blew My Mind!” “It Makes Sense,” “Visual Phenomena,” “Tribal Language,” and “At Ease.” Findings are defined and discussed. Implications of this work include a need to continue to define and practice phenomenological pedagogy, building on the work of pioneers and adding our own experiences. They further suggest that we make time for dialogue within instructional planning practices as these conversations may contribute to a clarification of intentions for future class meetings. Implications of this work suggest that researchers include explorations of teacher ontology and epistemology in studies of instruction and instructional planning, and indicate the inseparability vi of teachers‟ philosophies and practices. Finally, implications of this study encourage us to regard the primacy of instructors‟ educational philosophies, especially in teacher preparation programs. Authentic teaching may be the result of instructional planning that demonstrates congruence between teaching knowledge and beliefs, disciplinary commitments, and methods and models of instruction. vii Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: Introduction to the Study ........................................................................ 1 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................. 8 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 9 Significance of the Study ......................................................................................... 10 Delimitations ...........................................................................................................