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This paper aims to contribute to the advancement of methodological practice for phenomenographic research by introducing the notion of a lens of awareness, as a device that can enable researchers to zoom into the detail of the research process (the parts of the whole) and out again to the related context of a phenomenographic study (the whole). The lens enables researchers to embrace a reflexive stance to bracket prior assumptions, allowing critical inspection of the whole research process and a thorough retrospective and transparent account of the approaches used. We use a lens of awareness to communicate the component parts of a study that examined preschool children's understandings of the use of numerals in everyday environments. Through an analytical documentation of processes and decisions, we examine challenges, the powerful affordances and application of a phenomenographic approach to research with young children. We discuss four strands of researcher awareness that we argue are important in the application of phenomenography: the nature of the phenomenon; the operationalization of phenomenographic theoretical notions; the researcher's versus the participant's experience of the phenomenon and the applied research processes. The paper closes with explorative strategies that may enhance transparency and trustworthiness in phenomenographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined variation in medical practitioners' practice-based conceptions of what it means to be a doctor, based on interviews with 30 clinicians who were also medical educators. Participants included general practitioners, surgeons and physicians (non-surgical specialists). Participants were asked to draw a concept map of 'being a doctor', followed by semi-structured interviews using a phenomenographic research design. Three conceptions were identified, varyingly focused on (1) treating patients' medical problems; (2) maximising patients' well-being; and (3) maximising community health. Each conception was distinguished by variation in awareness of six underlying dimensions of being a doctor: (1) doctors' actions; (2) treatment success; (3) patients' actions; (4) patients' well-being; (5) community needs; and (6) social justice. Whilst all participants included dimensions 1 and 2 in their described practice, numerous participants did not include dimensions 3 and 4, i.e. did not take the patients' role and the impact of patients' psychosocial context into account in their practice. This is concerning, especially amongst medical educators, given the widely acknowledged importance of patient-centred care in medical practice. Similarly, only some of the participants considered community health needs and felt a broader social responsibility beyond their responsibility to individual patients. These findings highlight aspects of the medical profession that need to be further emphasised in medical training and continuing professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Methods Results Conclusions First‐line managers in Swedish communities have responsibility for that care to older people is provided, staffing is sufficient and the budget is balanced in their unit. It is a struggle with limited resources due to a growing population in need of care. This can lead to missed nursing care. The aim was to describe first‐line managers´ perceptions of missed nursing care in community health care for older people.A qualitative design with a phenomenographic approach, interviewing 24 first‐line managers. Ethics approval for the study was received from the Research Ethics Committee at Karlstad University (Dnr HNT 2020/566).The results are shown in six descriptive categories containing 15 perceptions. The descriptive categories are ‘occurrence of missed nursing care’, ‘becoming aware of missed nursing care’, ‘reasons for missed nursing care’, ‘missed nursing care has consequences for the older persons’, ‘missed nursing care has consequences for the staff’ and ‘taking action to decrease missed nursing care’.It is important for first‐line managers to become aware of the existence and reasons for missed nursing, as it has consequences for older people and staff. Managers need to take missed nursing care seriously in order to work with improvements for maintaining good quality of care and patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of a Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) intervention on 15 seventh-grade students’ relational conceptual changes and scientific inquiry abilities as they investigated the plant absorbance/transport phenomena in a photosynthesis learning sequence. The variation theory of learning that promotes intellectual empathy underpinned the study’s pedagogy. A granular phenomenography analysis of students’ pre-post inter-intra-explanations through writing and drawing resulted in seven theoretical descriptive categories. A relational conceptual change perspective involved in the interventional investigations resulted in 1) adding and deleting categories of ideas from pre-to-post teaching, 2) change in the number of students within the categories of ideas, 3) the replacement of everyday language with scientific knowledge, and 4) the complexity of students’ responses from pre-to post-teaching. In assessing students’ scientific inquiry ability levels with a POE analytic rubric of writing and drawing worksheets, 18% and 82% were developing and proficient, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of dental students and teachers about introducing metacognition pedagogy within an established clinical professional curriculum to provide primary data informing its feasibility. A qualitative study using phenomenography methodology was undertaken as part of a master's dissertation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 16 participants which included 9 clinical teachers and 7 dental students. Metacognition pedagogy was positively perceived by most of the participants as being beneficial to students' learning in oral health education. A few reported some negativity. All participants identified some challenges to be addressed if a metacognition pedagogy was to be implemented in the undergraduate curriculum. According to the perceptions of most participants in the study, metacognition emerged as a potential factor in improving student learning and exam performance, and facilitating the development of critical thinking, professionalism, and clinical skills. In the context of rigorous, demanding, and challenging courses, and recognising the complexities and uncertainties inherent in health professional working environments, metacognition emerges as a valuable tool, fostering self-awareness, regulation, and adaptability. Ultimately, metacognition has the capability to shape more adept learners and clinicians, yielding benefits for students, teachers, and patients alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are multidisciplinary, 'hospital at home' services which have developed over the last 10 years, aiming to improve recovery from illness more efficiently, prevent unnecessary hospital admission, and prevent early admission to residential care. However, little is known about the experience of professionals working in these roles. The aim of this study was to explore how working in an RRT is experienced and perceived by physiotherapists. This study used phenomenographically inspired methodology. Six participants who were working in RRTs were recruited to this study and all were working in the South of England. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, and phenomenographic analysis was undertaken. Participants working in RRTs described a range of varied, concrete lived-through experiences in addition to a more rhetorical discussion of how they conceptualized their work. Six main categories of description were generated from the analysis; each was assigned a metaphor. These included 'the detective,' 'the guru,' 'the lone ranger,' 'the team player,' 'the bricoleur,' and 'an emotional rollercoaster'; all categories were present with varied meanings. 'An emotional rollercoaster' was present within and throughout participants' descriptions of all other categories. This study provides valuable insights into physiotherapists' experience and conceptualization of working within this discipline, which may have implications for physiotherapy practice, workforce development, new and current RR physiotherapy services, RRT health professionals, and physiotherapy education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of this paper is to suggest perspectives on movement capability and movement skill learning that take into account the intrinsic, meaningful value of moving in terms of the experience of the mover as a learner and a knower. Two perspectives on movement capability and movement skill learning will be presented and discussed here: phenomenology and phenomenography, with a focus on phenomenography. Since some similarities between these two perspectives has raised questions and caused some confusion, this paper attempts to clarify, mainly through empirical examples, some significant similarities and differences. An overall difference is that phenomenology is concerned with the question "what does it mean to be a learner"?, while a central question for phenomenographic oriented research is instead: "what does it mean for learners to learn and know what is expected to be known?" Both approaches share an interest in acknowledging the perspective of the learner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental health professionals play a significant role in preventing and addressing public health problems. Improving this area of practice continues to be a key strategy of the Australian Government; however, achieving this outcome presents several challenges. These challenges relate to the changing context of the practice and the complexities inherent in the practice itself. To address this problem, we investigated the qualitatively different ways environmental health professionals experienced their practice in Australia to establish a new conceptualization of practice. Phenomenographic qualitative methods underpinned this study, involving open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 19 environmental health professionals from diverse backgrounds and practice settings. The study revealed four qualitatively different ways of experiencing the professional practice of environmental health: ‘protecting’, ‘helping’, ‘collaborating’, and ‘leading and innovating’. These different ways were logically linked by five themes of expanding awareness to form a Holistic Experiential Description of Practice (HEDP), representing a new and novel conceptualization of the professional practice of environmental health. We propose that these findings provide a more useful way to conceptualize this area of practice than the current descriptions allow.

As the percentage of women assuming the role of household leaders rises, there is a prevailing consensus to lend them support. Determining their experience of social support phenomenologically is the objective of the present study. The investigation utilized the phenomenological method. In 1400, twenty-one female heads of household in Mashhad participated in semi-structured interviews; the resulting data were subsequently analyzed using MAXQDA software. Three entities provide assistance to female heads of household: family, friends, and governmental organizations. Often, family support is both financial and emotional. Companionship and friends offer practical, financial, and emotional assistance, while governmental bodies and organizations prioritize monetary support. However, these assistance programs—consisting primarily of low-interest loans—will contribute to the perpetuation of poverty if not accompanied by policies that target and alleviate poverty. Widows initially require emotional support before progressing to requiring financial, material, and informational resources. Following financial support, divorced women require emotional support. Financial, informational, instrumental, and emotional autonomy are all essential for single women. Because mistrust, particularly towards men, constitutes the foundation of each of these women's living space, conformity and aloofness serve as the primary tenets of their social connections. The findings revealed that female heads of household encounter numerous obstacles in their personal and social spheres, necessitating assistance. Nevertheless, policymakers must be concerned with the manner in which these supports are delivered in order to prevent it from becoming a "social issue" and to mitigate social harm.

Abstract Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, inflammatory joint disease, that influences patients’ health in different ways, including physical, social, emotional, and psychological aspects. The goal of rheumatology care is to achieve optimal health and personalised care and therefore, it is essential to understand what health means for patients in the early course of RA. The aim of this study was to describe the understanding of health among patients with early RA. Methods The study had a descriptive qualitative design with a phenomenographic approach. Phenomenography is used to analyse, describe, and understand various ways people understand or experience a phenomenon, in this study, patients’ understandings of health. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 patients (22 women and nine men, aged (38–80) with early RA, defined as a disease duration of

Aim Design Method Results Conclusion Impact Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care Reporting Method Patient or Public Contribution To describe the variations of family members' conceptions of their supportive care needs (SCN) across the colorectal cancer (CRC) trajectory.A descriptive qualitative study with a phenomenographic approach.Individual semi‐structured interviews were conducted from May 2022 to October 2022 with 23 family members of persons diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The interviews were analysed using phenomenographic analysis following the Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist.The phenomenographic analysis resulted in five categories. Not of importance describes family members' needs as unimportant due to the good prognosis and the organization of care and in relation to the needs of others. Only satisfiable by professionals describes information possessed by the healthcare professionals as key, as well as the need for professional counselling for the family members to process their emotions. Managed by themselves describes family members preferring to manage their SCN themselves by turning to the appropriate social support and/or by using coping skills. Understood retrospectively describes SCN as only understandable when things have calmed down and as requiring one's own experience to understand. Left unmet describes SCN as unnoticed by the healthcare professionals or not brought to light by the family members, or family members not knowing where to turn for support.Supportive care should involve individualized information, proactive and repeated assessments of needs across the trajectory, as well as encouragement of family members to reflect on their needs and to accept support when needed.There is a gap in the literature regarding family members' SCN across the CRC trajectory which this study addresses. Findings show five categories of family members' conceptions of their SCN. Those findings could serve as a basis for the development of clinical colorectal supportive care across the cancer trajectory.Findings show that to offer family members of persons diagnosed with colorectal cancer support only at the time of diagnosis is insufficient. Instead, the healthcare team is recommended to proactively and repeatedly try to identify those in need and the characteristics of their needs. In addition, it is important to offer individualized information and strive to encourage family members to reflect on their situation and to not suppress their own needs if emerging.Reporting adheres to the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist.No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenomenography, as a qualitative research methodology, is distinguished by its simultaneous focus on investigating (a) variation in ways of experiencing phenomena in the world, and (b) structural relationships that link and separate the different ways of experiencing. The focus on structural relationships is often regarded as the most distinctive and useful aspect of the methodology, but it is also the least well understood aspect. To help explicate the nature of structural relationships in phenomenographic research, this paper reports the outcomes of an empirical study of different understandings of structural relationships amongst educational researchers. Structural relationships were variously described as: (1) hierarchical relationships; (2) hierarchically-inclusive relationships; (3) meaning-structure relationships; (4) part-whole relationships; and (5) multi-faceted relationships. The outcomes of the study highlight a number of critical aspects of the notion of structural relationships that researchers need to become aware of in order to use the methodology in a sophisticated way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Engineering professors involved in community projects strive to enhance engagement through a combination of social sciences and engineering methodologies. Recognizing the growing importance of critical methodologies, particularly those rooted in social justice and community design, researchers have explored their impact on fostering meaningful collaborations between engineers, students, and community partners. Methods: This study employs a phenomenographic approach to explore how a cohort of engineering professors, students, and community members conceptualize their participation in community-engaged practices. Results: Our findings reveal a nuanced outcome space comprising five distinct ways in which individuals perceive their community engagement: as interdisciplinary endeavors, addressing community issues, engaging in co-design, and addressing systemic barriers. These conceptual frameworks elucidate a progression in the depth of engineers' involvement with the community, underscoring the significance of systems literacy and social justice in more intricate contexts. Discussion: These results advocate for engineers to adopt an active membership approach, emphasizing collaboration, when working on engineering projects within communities, as opposed to adopting passive roles that may undermine the impact of community engagement. Conclusion: In conclusion, a deeper understanding of the varied conceptualizations of community engagement among engineering professors, students, and community members underscores the importance of adopting proactive roles and fostering collaborative approaches in community projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined distinct conceptualizations of space during a cohort of world languages preservice teachers' (PSTs) clinical experience online. The aim of this study was to shed light on the affordances and limitations of the online space as PSTs reworked the meaning of pedagogical spaces during the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Preservice teachers' autoethnographic writings, journals, and teaching videos were analyzed to better understand the emotional, pedagogical, and conceptual meaning‐making processes that language teaching in and through the online space entailed. Through a phenomenographic analysis of the data, this study probed into the distinct perceptions of pedagogical space that emerged from the participants' online teaching experience. Findings suggest that while PSTs felt distant from their students, emotionally exhausted, and limited in what they could do instructionally, they also developed pedagogical problem‐solving and decision‐making skills that showcased the agency of the online space shaping novice teacher's beliefs and practices. Implications for world language teacher education curriculum are discussed, including the potential effects of cocurricular online teaching experiences facilitating PST's attunement to the agency of space both online and in physical classrooms. The Challenge: The onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic required a shift from conventional brick and mortar classrooms to remote forms of learning. This shift presented considerable challenges for teacher education and teacher readiness in general. Novice and veteran teachers found themselves in a situation in which they had to forcibly renegotiate with the terms of what pedagogical space meant within traditional schooling processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the percentage of women assuming the role of household leaders rises, there is a prevailing consensus to lend them support. Determining their experience of social support phenomenologically is the objective of the present study. The investigation utilized the phenomenological method. In 1400, twenty-one female heads of household in Mashhad participated in semi-structured interviews; the resulting data were subsequently analyzed using MAXQDA software. Three entities provide assistance to female heads of household: family, friends, and governmental organizations. Often, family support is both financial and emotional. Companionship and friends offer practical, financial, and emotional assistance, while governmental bodies and organizations prioritize monetary support. However, these assistance programs--consisting primarily of low-interest loans--will contribute to the perpetuation of poverty if not accompanied by policies that target and alleviate poverty. Widows initially require emotional support before progressing to requiring financial, material, and informational resources. Following financial support, divorced women require emotional support. Financial, informational, instrumental, and emotional autonomy are all essential for single women. Because mistrust, particularly towards men, constitutes the foundation of each of these women's living space, conformity and aloofness serve as the primary tenets of their social connections. The findings revealed that female heads of household encounter numerous obstacles in their personal and social spheres, necessitating assistance. Nevertheless, policymakers must be concerned with the manner in which these supports are delivered in order to prevent it from becoming a "social issue" and to mitigate social harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Design Methods Results Conclusion Implications for the Profession Impact Reporting Method Patient or Public Contribution To explore how nursing home staff advocate for residents with dementia.Phenomenographic qualitative research.Twenty nursing home staff from four disciplines (six nurses, four physical therapists, five social workers and five care workers) were purposively recruited from three different nursing homes. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews conducted from February 2023 to March 2023, and the analysis followed the sequential steps of phenomenographic analysis.The analysis identified five categories of description: focusing on what happened, finding the gaps in perspectives, how to bridge for finding a common perspective, how to tailor care such that each resident receives equitable care and how to establish interdisciplinary sharing for a consistent advocative pattern. Their structural relationship was also identified as an outcome space.The cyclical advocacy structure illustrated that nursing home staff engage in an ongoing process of advocacy during conflict situations as part of interdisciplinary care, emphasizing continuity of care rather than separate occurrences of care.This study revealed that, in advocating for residents with dementia, nursing home staff adopted an approach that fosters consistent care and proactive prevention, achieved through the formation of shared knowledge applicable uniformly across similar situations.This study contributes significantly to the continuing education or training of interdisciplinary staff in nursing homes. The revelations of the study hold significance not only for the practical application but also for the theoretical advancement of concepts related to safeguarding the dignity, human rights and personhood of residents with dementia, with the ultimate goal of enhancing their quality of life within nursing homes.Reporting complied with the COREQ criteria for qualitative research.Nursing home directors have contributed to the validation of data analysis and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A specialty training program is crucial for shaping future specialist doctors, imparting clinical knowledge and skills, and fostering a robust professional identity. This study investigates how anesthesiologists develop their professional identity while navigating unique challenges specific to their specialty. The formation of professional identity in anesthesiology significantly influences doctors' well-being, teamwork, and ultimately patient care, making it a crucial aspect of anesthesiology education. Utilizing a phenomenographic approach, the research explores the learners' personal experiences and perspectives of professional identity formation in their specialty training programs, providing valuable insights for enhancing future anesthetic educational programs. Method: The data for this phenomenographic study were collected through semi-structured interviews with anesthesiology trainees and specialists, guided by open-ended questions. The interviews were conducted at a Swedish university hospital, and participant selection used purposive sampling, providing rich and diverse data for analysis after 15 interviews. Iterative analysis followed the seven-step phenomenographic approach. The research team, comprising qualitative research and anesthesiology education experts, ensured result validity through regular review, discussion, and reflective practices. Results: The study reveals three fundamental dimensions: 'Knowledge of Subject Matter,' 'Knowledge of Human Relations,' and 'Knowledge of Affect.' These dimensions offer insights into how anesthesiologists comprehend anesthesiology as a profession, navigate interactions with colleagues and patients, and interpret emotional experiences in anesthesiology practice – all crucial elements in the formation of professional identity. The findings could be synthesized and further described by three conceptions: The Outcome-Driven Learner, the Emerging Collaborator, and the Self-Directed Caregiver. Conclusion: The study uncovers differing learner understandings in the development of anesthesiologists' professional identity. Varying priorities, values, and role interpretations highlight the shortcomings of a generic, one-size-fits-all educational strategy. By acknowledging and integrating these nuanced learner perspectives, as elucidated in detail in this study, the future of anesthesia education can be improved. This will necessitate a holistic approach, intertwining both natural sciences and humanities studies, focus on tacit knowledge, and flexible teaching strategies, to guarantee thorough professional development, lifelong learning, and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this qualitative study, we research what constitutes the relationships between conceptions of quality and value associated with higher education as experienced by prospective employers of business graduates. Quality and value in higher education are often linked though the relationship is unclear. Employers are an important and under-researched stakeholder group on the demand side of higher education. Data are generated by interviewing prospective employers of business graduates from a UK university. Interviews are analysed using a phenomenographic method to determine the qualitatively different ways in which actors make sense of the relationships between quality and value. Understanding prospective employers' conceptions of the relationships is important given the competitive pressures on universities and businesses. The research reinforces the experiential and idiosyncratic relationships between quality and value in higher education. Three conceptions of what constitutes quality and value in higher education are discussed: (a) quality is an antecedent of value; (b) quality is simple while value is complex; and (c) quality is internal to HE while value is created in the customer domain. The research outcomes provide important insights for researchers and practitioners through clearer understanding of how quality and value are related for this important stakeholder group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role of affective perception in the development of translation and experiential literacy through the medium of a multimodal translation workshop held with twelve arts practitioners, academics, and translators. Both the rationale for the workshop format and the interpretation of workshop outputs draw on a transdisciplinary framework spanning theories of intermediality and multimodality, the study of acousmatic sound, acoustic atmospheres, and corporeal music/sound reception. Adopting a phenomenographic approach, we discuss the role of the body and the senses in communication and how the sensory exercises developed for our workshop can provide access to the prenoetic nature of perception from both a cognitive and affective standpoint. Recognizing the narrative quality of participants' comments, a deductive approach was taken to analyze their translations and reflections through the lens of narrative modes of acousmatic music. The article concludes with pedagogical implications on the basis of participants' reflections. Our findings support the use of a multimodal online translation workshop as both a research method to investigate meaning-making and a pedagogical resource to develop experiential literacy for both practitioners and developing translators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While patient engagement in healthcare professions education (HPE) has significantly increased in the past decades, a theoretical gap remains. What are the varied reasons as to why patients get involved with HPE programs? With a focus on understanding what drives patient involvement with HPE programs, this study examined how a patient as teacher (PAT) program was experienced by medical students, patient teachers, and faculty within a medical school. Through a phenomenographic approach, this study captures and describes the different ways our study participants experienced a PAT program (the 'phenomenon'). 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted in total, comprised of interviews with patient teachers (N = 10), medical students (N = 10) and program facilitators (N = 4) who participated in a PAT program. Our focus was on participants' description of the program and was grounded in their experiences of as well as their beliefs about it. Our findings captured 4 layers representing the qualitatively different (yet interrelated) ways in which participants experienced/perceived and conceptualized the various aspects of their experience with the PAT program: (1) A productive disruption of the learning space (2) A re-humanization within healthcare (3) A means of empowerment and agency (4) A catalyst for change and emancipation. Our outcome space results can be visually illustrated by a nesting "Matryoshka" doll, representing the four layers and depicting the process of uncovering the less conscious layers of sense-making within this phenomenon. HPE programs that are co-produced with patients and actively involve patients as teachers have the potential, but not guarantee, to be emancipatory. To engage in PAT programs that exhibit an emancipatory potential, we need to consider transformative paradigms of education, which are aligned with social change, and disrupt the traditional teacher-learner hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning in the computer laboratory is an important component when students learn computer programming. In this article, we analyse empirical data on novice students working in pairs in the laboratory. Using an approach inspired by phenomenography and variation theory, we specifically focus on how students' learning of theory and their learning of practice interact. We found that theory-oriented and practice-oriented actions play different, but complimentary and closely intertwined roles in students' learning. In particular, we discuss that students' frequent switches between practice-oriented and theory-oriented actions create a variation that is helpful for learning. This variation adds to the variation the teacher creates. Finally, we discuss how and why frequent switches are important for the successful learning process and we suggest a couple of ways to make it more likely that students make such switches when working with assignments at the computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractFeedback seeking research envisages pro-active student roles in feedback processes but students seem to hesitate to seek feedback from their teachers despite the potential benefits it offers. Appreciating variation in students’ experiences of feedback seeking is crucial for understanding this issue. This phenomenographic interview-based research investigated variation in the experiences of 24 undergraduate students regarding feedback seeking. An outcome space of five categories was developed: (1) feedback seeking as unnecessary, (2) feedback seeking through monitoring, (3) feedback seeking as impression management, (4) feedback seeking for academic achievement and (5) feedback seeking for broader learning. Broader significance emerges through charting interplay between the mutually reinforcing concepts of feedback seeking and feedback literacy, suggesting benefits of enabling students to appreciate the value of feedback seeking when transitioning to higher education. Surfacing some of the negative views of feedback seeking expressed by students enables us to propose some teaching and learning approaches to reduce their concerns. These implications for practice include developing curriculum-wide opportunities for sustained feedback seeking; establishing psychologically safe environments for feedback seeking to flourish; and designing complex iterative assessments that encourage feedback seeking and uptake. Future possibilities for students to seek feedback from generative artificial intelligence are briefly sketched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study seeks to design a service logic business model framework for novice entrepreneurs launching startups in the transformational tourist clusters considering the key stakeholders' interests and understanding the interests of those tourism customers seeking „conscious travel” to reinvent themselves and the world around them. The research combines phenomenographical and constructive approaches. Based on thematic content analysis of in-depth interviews with 12 entrepreneurs, 5 host providers of tourism services, and 30 travelers, as well as 7 co-creative workshops, we argue that a three-dimensional perspective on transformative tourism services suits the tasks of value co-creation in a collaborative peer-to-peer cluster-type networks. The key stakeholders in this framework are a service provider (startup), a host partner at the destination and local tourist clusters ("salt of the earth"), and a target customer. The proposed business model framework will enable novice transformative tourism entrepreneurs to experiment with finding a profitable business model in a lean format. The article also examines the impact of digital travel services on the development of the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to explore the actors' conceptions of the digitalization of public services through their experiences, perceptions, and understanding, which are not widely disclosed in research. These actors include the government as a service provider and users, as well as business actors and academicians. In principle, the sustainability of the digitalization of public services will be primarily determined by the participation and support of its users or citizens. The study used Phenomenography and interviewed eight informants, including three government officials, a citizen, an academic, and three business people, in Yogyakarta. The city introduced the JSS (Jogya Smart Service) one- door digital platform for public services in 2018. Data collection was conducted with interviews. The study revealed that actors had varying conceptions about the digitalization of public services. These differences were related to media use, advantages and challenges, and stakeholder engagement. Each perception had sub-perceptions, with public information digitalization having the most. The number of variations in the sub- conceptions indicates that each informant has a diverse perception and positive experiences related to implementing JSS. The outcome space demonstrated that digitalizing public services entails three understandings: new skills required, technological implications, co-production, and shared values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Despite there being many models for how spiritual care should be provided, the way nurses actually provide spiritual care often differs from these models. Based on the premise that the way a person enacts their work role is related to how they understand that role, this study aims to describe the qualitatively different ways that nurses understand their spiritual care role. Methods: A convenience sample of 66 American nurses completed an anonymous, online questionnaire about what spiritual care means for them and what they generally do to provide spiritual care. Their responses were analyzed phenomenographically. Results: Four qualitatively different ways of understanding emerged: active management of the patient's experience, responsive facilitation of patient's wishes, accompaniment on the patient's dying journey, and empowering co-action with the patient. Each understanding was found to demonstrate a specific combination of 5 attributes that described the spiritual care role: nurse directivity, the cues used for spiritual assessment, and the nurse's perception of intimacy, the patient, and the task. Significance of results: The findings of this study may explain why nurses vary in their spiritual care role and can be used to assess and develop competence in spiritual care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) secondary art and design trainees participated in visual impairment awareness training (VIAT), prior to facilitating an art education project for visually impaired (VI) pupils. This was designed to better prepare them for working with a range of learners. A phenomenographic methodology and research approach was adopted – to capture key data relevant to learning, gaining knowledge and understanding in education settings. This contributed to knowledge in the field, highlighting the shift in trainees perspectives towards working with VI pupils, as a consequence of participation in VIAT. Existing literature recognises that VIAT provides an understanding of VI but cannot replicate everyday experiences. The findings as part of this study indicate that initially an empathy response was evoked, as trainees were apprehensive about working with VI pupils. Following VIAT, trainees gained a superficial overview of VI. Having gained experience, an advocacy response was evoked as trainees felt more comfortable asking pupils how their needs could be met.

Abstract Background The discussion of access in medical education has its focus largely on physical and epistemological access, leaving a qualitative gap regarding sociocultural factors which enable access in this context. This study introduces and defines symbolic access, a concept with a specific lens on sociocultural inclusion, and the influence it has on student learning within the South African medical education landscape. Methods A phenomenographic design was used to explore students’ conceptions of symbolic access and its impact on learning. One-on-one exploratory interviews were conducted with fifteen final year medical students at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Interviews were analysed using Sjöström and Dahlgren‘s seven-step phenomenography model. Results Four categories of description were induced, which described students’ understanding of symbolic access, these were rejection, disregard, invalidation, and actualization. Four dimensions of variation were discovered expressing the diversity of events which informed the collectives’ understanding of the phenomenon. These dimensions were; interactions with educators, peer relationships, educational environment, and race. Categories of description and dimensions of variation formed the Outcome Space, a visual representation of the student experience of symbolic access. The outcome space had a double narrative related to symbolic access; exclusion (major) and actualization (minor). Medical student’s chief experience within the medical community was exclusion, however clinical immersion, meaningful participation, peer-relationships, and clinical skills lessons facilitated community enculturation, and impacted learning. Conclusion Despite deeply exclusionary experiences throughout their programme, medical students articulated a paradox of both awareness and no awareness of symbolic access. The awareness of symbolic access was predominantly influenced by clinical experiences and clinical immersion during the pre-clinical and clinical years of study. Further, descriptions of valuable learning experiences were connected to clinical events and the involvement with patient care. This study suggests that the actualization of symbolic access and description of meaningful learning experiences are linked. Medical educationalists should design undergraduate curricula with early clinical immersion at the fore and explore symbolic concepts pertaining to access, as they are linked to transformative learning experiences for the medical student.

This paper presents part of the findings of a phenomenographically-informed investigation into higher education (HE) teachers’ perceptions of personal learning networks in the context of the recent COVID-19 emergency-remote-teaching (ERT) period, with a specific targeting of perceived challenges. This ERT period has magnified teachers’ use of personal learning networks with an absence of a coherent institutionalized approach to ERT, which has presented itself as a unique opportunity through which to explore how Networked Learning (NL) can be incorporated to help teachers manage the longer term shift towards the technologization of HE. The research therefore aims to explore the perceptions of 18 Academic English teachers at a leading English-instruction university in Kazakhstan that was forced to move online at the beginning of COVID-19. The chapter reports the teachers’ perceived challenges of using their networks for online teaching and learning—particularly for connecting to people and resources online. The results suggest that teachers perceive the challenges of network use in at least five different ways: i) technological tools, ii) technological skills (training), iii) fractious group communication, iv) subdued communicative spontaneity and v) a sense of isolation. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the results for teachers and how the challenges can be overcome.

Purpose Guidelines recommend starting glucose-lowering drug upon type 2 diabetes mellitus diagnosis together with lifestyle changes. Lifestyle changes are as essential as the drug, earlier recommendations allowed some months of lifestyle changes while being drug-free. Prescription on diagnosis may interfere with patients’ understanding and motivation for lifestyle changes if they cannot evaluate the effect on blood glucose. Methods A phenomenographic approach and interviews were conducted with patients who started a glucose-lowering drug at diagnosis. Results Three qualitatively different conceptions of being prescribed glucose-lowering drugs in connection to type 2 diabetes mellitus diagnosis were found: “Drugs as something unwelcome,” “Drugs as a support,” and “Drugs as a means to reach the goal”. These conceptions range broadly from drugs as unwelcome to drugs as a support for lifestyle changes and an opportunity to influence the course of the lifelong disease to reach a goal. Conclusions This study has identified various perspectives of patients’ understanding of the role of lifestyle changes in managing their disease. The patients undergo a process, and the perspectives vary, providing a more extensive and nuanced understanding. It is, therefore, impossible to apply a routine protocol and a person-centred approach is required when prescribing a glucose-lowering drug.

Historically White universities in Britain have a long history of misrecognizing the experiences of Black students and rendering their struggles and aspirations a matter of scrutiny. More recently an intense higher education policy focus has been placed on addressing outcome differentials between various ethnoracial groups. Little however is known about how minoritised groups of students experience and understand academic achievement. In our phenomenographic study Black students’ ways of experiencing academic achievement vary from broad expectations of gaining good grades to developing as a person and contributing to the society. Seen through a relational lens, the results can be utilized to identify the aspects of university life that warrant further attention to improve Black students’ experiences during their studies and achieve equitable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current environmental crises call for an integrated knowledge of landscapes and their ecosystems in a broader sense. This article presents a pedagogical framework for cross-disciplinary landscape research at postgraduate level. The framework is grounded in the use of geospatial epistemic discomfort as a creative force to develop and enhance inquiry skills able to cross and merge disciplinary boundaries. Developed within the Erasmus+ KA2 project “CROSSLAND”, the pedagogical framework is based on the scaffolding of epistemic discomfort through four key didactic elements: 1) cross-disciplinary group work and open-ended assignment, 2) in-field inquiry as pre-training on space-time, 3) replacement of traditional lectures by student-led seminars, 4) GIS labs centred on the exploration of cross-disciplinary portfolios of geospatial approaches and methods given as worked-out examples. Main results from the evaluation of the framework implementation in a Summer School show how learning cross-disciplinarity happened thanks to a scaffolding that allowed, first and foremost, the socialisation of different conceptualisations of space. While students felt at ease with geospatial epistemic discomfort, we can conclude that spatial cognitive processes are powerful in improving abilities beyond the spatial domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to investigate how students in lower secondary schools in England perceive the subject of music in terms of its importance and enjoyment. Following findings from the first survey phase of the project, it specifically sought to shed light on the reasons why the majority of students decide not to choose music as one of their optional subjects at GCSE level. The paper presents interview findings with students in three schools at the north-east of England following the phenomenographic method of data analysis. Among factors found to impact on students' decision to continue music at Key Stage 4 (ages 14–16 years) were the desire to spend more time learning music, having more choice and autonomy in the classroom, having more information about the content and requirements of GCSE music, feeling disadvantaged due to not being proficient at instrumental playing and having a limited perception of their own musicality or perceiving music as being elite or difficult. The findings are discussed in terms of their practical implications for the teaching and learning of music in secondary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) present complex challenges for nursing home (NH) nurses, leading to confusion and difficulties in providing effective care. To address these issues, investigating how NH nurses perceive and manage the BPSD is crucial since it can lead to the development of tailored and effective care plans. This study therefore aimed to explore the ways in which NH nurses approach the management of the BPSD by using phenomenography. The study identified five categories of assessment and four categories of intervention in managing the BPSD, with their hierarchical structure represented as an outcome space. Each category's description provides a clear conceptualization of the complex and challenging nature of the BPSD care, offering insights into how NH nurses perceive the BPSD management. The study's findings can enhance NH nurse education and lead to effective care plans for residents with BPSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To describe intensive care nurses' conceptions of participating during the donation after circulatory death (DCD) process in intensive care units in Sweden. Design: A qualitative design with a phenomenographic approach. Methods: In total, 12 semi‐structured interviews were conducted in April 2022 with intensive care nurses from three hospitals. Data were analysed using a phenomenographic approach. Results: Conceptions of participating during the DCD process varied. Four main themes emerged: DCD as a system; Intensive care nurses' role in the situation; Life to death to life; The essence of DCD. Variations emerged regarding what the informants talked about and how they talked about the what. Variations were based on informants' perspective of their role in relation to the structure and the team, and their conceptions of care for patients and their relatives. Conclusion: The findings illustrated success factors and challenges. Knowledge, experience, distinct structure, and relationship with relatives, among other factors, were described as success factors, while a lack of experience, difficulty in prognosing death, and organisational obstacles emerged as challenges. Furthermore, the findings showed that intensive care nurses play an important role in optimising the outcome of the DCD process. Their work related to DCD was conceived as being meaningful to fulfil more peoples' wishes to donate organs. Impact: People on the waiting list for organ transplantation are dying due to a shortage of organs. The implementation of DCD, as a complement to Donation after Brain Death (DBD), contributed to an increase in the number of organ donors, and intensive care nurses play an important role during the DCD process. Previous research manifests the complexity concerning their role. There is a lack of nursing research regarding intensive care nurses' conceptions of what it means to participate in the DCD process, which emphasises the significance of this study. Reporting Method: This study is reported using consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (SRQR). Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Design Methods Results Conclusion Implication for the Profession and Patient Care Impact Patient or Public Contribution To explore perceptions of annual surveillance with magnetic resonance imaging and perceptions of care during the examination among women with a hereditary risk of breast cancer.Phenomenography.Fourteen face‐to‐face interviews using a semi‐structured interview guide were conducted among women undergoing surveillance in the southern region of Sweden. A seven‐step phenomenographic analysis with investigator triangulation was performed.‘Considering own risk of developing breast cancer’, ‘Entrusting oneself to surveillance’ and ‘Living in a cycle’ represented descriptive categories of perceptions. Family narratives introduced comprehension of own risk of breast cancer, followed by appraisal of own benefits of participating in surveillance. Entrusting oneself to surveillance included handing over management of diagnostic examinations and dealing with practical issues and diverse emotions related to surveillance. Planning life based around surveillance, struggling with fluctuating emotions, also between the examinations and questioning own identity implied the perception of living in a cycle.Surveillance for hereditary breast cancer implies living in a cycle of dealing with fluctuating emotions and planning life based around surveillance. Comprehension of one's own risk for breast cancer arises from awareness in the family. Women value the surveillance programme and trust the healthcare system.Knowledge of women's perceptions of the surveillance programme and care is vital for supporting women in their decision‐making on attendance and providing person‐centred care during surveillance.A gap in explorative studies from the perspective of the individual woman in the context of surveillance for breast cancer and care in magnetic resonance imaging in surveillance was addressed. ‘Considering own risk of developing breast cancer’, ‘Entrusting oneself to surveillance’ and ‘Living in a cycle’ represented women's perceptions of surveillance and care. The study results have implications for person‐centred care among women in the surveillance programme.No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistence of degree‐awarding gaps and anti‐Black racism warrant an exploration of the quality and effectiveness of academic support offered to Black undergraduate students in British higher education, and how such support is perceived by students. Our phenomenographic study found that Black students' conceptions of academic support range from broad expectations of help with their studies to more advanced understandings of their own agency and the context of academic support. Our results highlight that attempts to enhance academic support should revisit three interconnected areas: what type of academic support is provided, where, and by whom. Most importantly, we propose a new inclusive direction that replaces existing deficit models with approaches that will strengthen Black students' agential effectiveness within historically White institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental divorce affects various behavioral, emotional, social, and academic outcomes, and children from divorced families are more likely to experience problems in their lives. This present study aimed to explore the dimensions of post-traumatic growth resulting from divorce parental among young Iranian women. A total of 20 young women living in Tehran, Iran, whose parents were divorced participated in this research. The data were collected by a semi-structured interview and analyzed by Marton's proposed method. The findings of this phenomenography study revealed five outcome spaces of post-traumatic growth. Categories of description included post-traumatic growth in the behavioral dimension, academic-occupational dimension, spiritual dimension, ethnic relationships dimension, and meaning of life dimension. According to the findings, in Iranian society, culture, ethnicity, and religion play an important role in growth after divorce. In general, if they are mature and mentally prepared, they can cope with their parents' divorce and grow in different domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Phenomenography emerged from pedagogy to examine the qualitatively different ways that individuals experience and perceive the same phenomenon. Despite its uniqueness, the uptake of phenomenography in nursing research is still limited. Potentially, this may be related to confusion regarding what the design is about, its philosophical underpinnings and how distinct it is from other qualitative designs. Objectives: To offer a better understanding of phenomenography by comparing it with other established qualitative research designs, examining its theoretical foundations, highlighting some studies that have employed the approach in nursing and offering methodological guidance to improve its uptake in nursing. Design: Discussion paper. Findings: Compared to the traditional qualitative designs employed in nursing, phenomenography has been utilized in fewer studies. The ontological, epistemological and methodological basis of phenomenography highlights it as a distinct design. The strength of phenomenography lies in its emphasis on understanding the collective variations between participants and presenting these holistically as an 'outcome space'. Discussion: Phenomenography is a distinct qualitative research approach that presents a unique opportunity for nursing to further its use. Issues regarding bracketing, the inclusion of phenomenography studies in qualitative meta‐synthesis and employing a hermeneutic approach to phenomenography are avenues for further work in nursing. Patient and Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking to improve strategies and practices turned to education for sustainability, this research aimed to identify how the process of building sustainability conceptions in elementary school students takes place in a Brazilian institution. The present qualitative research complies with interpretive paradigm assumptions, and its main research method is the phenomenography analysis using drawings. The educational institution investigated in the study was the Pessoense Institute of Integrated Education (IPEI), in which students from the second, third, and fifth grades of elementary school participated in the research. As for the results, the students identified five different ways to understand sustainability, going from more external or superficial to broader. We were also able to notice that the process of creating these conceptions over elementary school years works progressively, that is, these conceptions expand along the school years. The findings in the research cooperate to improving practices of education for sustainability that is aimed at the teaching level studied for, when explaining the dynamics in the process of creating these sustainability conceptions from the students investigated, it supports a bolder choice of educational strategies, models and methods for such audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assumptions regarding digital technologies in business schools have become part of the hidden curriculum. It is generally assumed that students have the same levels of access and prior exposure to digital technologies as well as information and digital literacies (IDL) skills. Little attention has been given to the issues of social-digital inequalities and the impact of this hidden curriculum on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this study, using a phenomenographic approach, we examine how students from rural, socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Pakistan, experienced digital technologies in the context of a full-time, in-person MBA program. The findings reveal the students initially had an alienating experience of digital technologies which for most transitions to either an engaged or instrumental experience. While the students exercised agency in transitioning from an alienation experience this was as a result of their own effort, time and labor. We conclude that without additional support offered to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the hidden curriculum associated with digital technologies potentially perpetuates, or maintains socio-digital inequalities within management education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. Most children and young people do not have a social experience of dealing with peers with disabilities and disadvantages which causes various problems for both sides. The relevant reactions of the class group to the behaviour of a classmate with learning disabilities can have the same positive effect on the individual as the professional help of the class teacher or psychologist. The study research question was to understand how classmates perceive their experiences communicating and cooperating with peers with special educational needs or disabilities. Methods. The phenomenographic research approach was chosen to carry out the study. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were carried out to collect the data. The informantes selection criteria were students who had studied for at least one year in a standard classroom with peers with special educational needs or disabilities and had been in contact with and cooperated with them in general education secondary school. Results. The positive experience is related to the development of will and character traits, lessons of tolerance, development of empathy, building social support skills, and lessons in sociability. The negative experience is related to dealing with outbreaks of aggression and egression, communication problems and mistakes, and disturbances during lessons. Conclusion. The participants' positive experiences show that the social environment and education accelerate the formation of the personality and direct it towards sociability. Participants' negative experiences signalled the abundance of problems existing in the reality of education and their multifacetedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The discussion of access in medical education has its focus largely on physical and epistemological access, leaving a qualitative gap regarding sociocultural factors which enable access in this context. This study introduces and defines symbolic access, a concept with a specific lens on sociocultural inclusion, and the influence it has on student learning within the South African medical education landscape. Methods: A phenomenographic design was used to explore students' conceptions of symbolic access and its impact on learning. One-on-one exploratory interviews were conducted with fifteen final year medical students at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Interviews were analysed using Sjöström and Dahlgren's seven-step phenomenography model. Results: Four categories of description were induced, which described students' understanding of symbolic access, these were rejection, disregard, invalidation, and actualization. Four dimensions of variation were discovered expressing the diversity of events which informed the collectives' understanding of the phenomenon. These dimensions were; interactions with educators, peer relationships, educational environment, and race. Categories of description and dimensions of variation formed the Outcome Space, a visual representation of the student experience of symbolic access. The outcome space had a double narrative related to symbolic access; exclusion (major) and actualization (minor). Medical student's chief experience within the medical community was exclusion, however clinical immersion, meaningful participation, peer-relationships, and clinical skills lessons facilitated community enculturation, and impacted learning. Conclusion: Despite deeply exclusionary experiences throughout their programme, medical students articulated a paradox of both awareness and no awareness of symbolic access. The awareness of symbolic access was predominantly influenced by clinical experiences and clinical immersion during the pre-clinical and clinical years of study. Further, descriptions of valuable learning experiences were connected to clinical events and the involvement with patient care. This study suggests that the actualization of symbolic access and description of meaningful learning experiences are linked. Medical educationalists should design undergraduate curricula with early clinical immersion at the fore and explore symbolic concepts pertaining to access, as they are linked to transformative learning experiences for the medical student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports from a design-based research project seeking to reduce bullying, and so, contribute to the sustainability goal of improving (understanding of) justice. Goals such as this call for holistic and interdisciplinary ways of thinking that are quite at odds with the linear and reductionist epistemologies available with globally dominant 'neoliberal' discourses on education and educational decision making. To achieve goals such as improving justice, sustainable education and educators must explore and champion expansive ways of knowing that acknowledge and celebrate the complexity of everyday learning contexts. Responding to this need, this paper presents a case study of how we, as a group of educational designers and teacher educators, have explored how the arts-based pedagogy known as Creative Body-Based-Learning, when coupled with Engeström's expansive theory of learning, can provide an alternative structure and methodology for teacher professional knowledge production. The paper will also outline the use of the research methodology of computer-aided phenomenography as a means of evaluating this kind of complex learning where simple testing and self-reporting are typically inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the impact of phenomenography on higher education research and academic development. Interest in phenomenography as an educational research methodology continues to grow, but with interest growing faster than the number of experienced researchers, some misunderstandings of the approach have arisen and been circulating in discussions and publications, becoming self-reinforcing. This can cause misinterpretations of the meaning and implications of phenomenographic research findings, plus potential confusion for research students and others new to the research approach. This paper describes eight prevalent misunderstandings of phenomenography, explains what is missing in those ways of thinking about phenomenographic research, and speculates on the sources of such misunderstandings. A unique aspect of this paper is the focus on what phenomenograhy is not, as well as what it is, which is congruent with a phenomenographic approach to learning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults used to be the largest online student population before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the number of online students multiplied during the pandemic, and now includes the complete conglomeration of all student groups. Due to their longer experience of online education, adult students continue to provide valuable insights on how to enhance online learning for other higher education students. This article reports the results of phenomenographic research on the qualitative differences in the ways of experiencing learning by fifteen adult students enrolled in two online postgraduate programmes. The analysis on in-depth, participant-led interviews demonstrated that online learning is conceptualised in three ways: as an investment, as a process that brings structure, and as a process that enables and empowers an individual. The results of this study are of particular importance for those who are concerned with introducing online learning to the higher education curricula. The paper argues that the stigma of online education being the second choice, maintained in the educational research literature, should be replaced by a holistic approach to education as a process that organically incorporates the online educational elements into higher education. Focusing on how adult students experience online learning provides a broader and deeper understanding of adopted effective practices and the variety of online learning opportunities and outcomes for other students' groups. Insights based on the results of this study are summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]