Phenomenography
Phenomenography is a qualitative research approach used mainly in education to study the different ways people experience, understand, perceive, or conceive a particular phenomenon. It originated in the 1970s with the work of Ference Marton and Roger Booth at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Distinct from phenomenology, which seeks the essence of experiences, phenomenography aims to describe the qualitatively different conceptions held by a group of people and to map the variation among them.
Central to phenomenography are the notions of second-order perspective, categories of description, and an outcome space.
Methodologically, phenomenography typically collects data through semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaires, or tasks designed to reveal conceptions.
Applications often lie in education research, where researchers examine students’ conceptions of learning, teaching, knowledge, assessment,
Critiques focus on subjectivity, reliability, and generalizability given small, purposive samples and interpretive analysis. Proponents emphasize