Phenomenology Beyond Method: Reclaiming Philosophical Rigour and Ethical Responsibility in Educational Research

Abstract

Phenomenology has become an influential approach in educational research, often invoked to foreground lived experience, voice, and meaning. Yet its growing popularity has coincided with a tendency to treat phenomenology as a generic qualitative method rather than a philosophically grounded mode of inquiry. This paper argues that such usage risks diluting phenomenology’s epistemological rigour and ethical responsibility. Drawing on classical and contemporary phenomenological scholarship, the paper examines how phenomenology’s foundational commitments to intentionality, lifeworld, bracketing, reflexivity, and interpretation are often selectively adopted or applied superficially in educational studies. Particular attention is given to the unresolved methodological tension between descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology and the ethical risks that arise when this tension is obscured. The paper contends that methodological ambiguity contributes to interpretive drift, aestheticised representations of experience, and weakened accountability in research involving teachers and learners. Rather than proposing phenomenology as a flexible toolkit, the paper repositions it as an epistemic and ethical commitment that demands philosophical clarity, methodological restraint, and reflexive responsibility. The paper concludes by outlining implications for educational research cultures and teacher education, emphasising the need to reclaim phenomenology as a disciplined and ethically grounded research paradigm.