Phenomenological Interview

Researcher Reflections

This was probably the hardest interview for me as I did not believe in any foundational existence of essence. However, as a modeling exercise for this class, I decided to follow the technique and see where it leads me. I found out that it did not lead me to the essence. Instead it lead me to what I thought might be the essence. This becomes so central in problematizing interviews. How do you as a researcher come to the same space as the participant when you are informed by multiple similar and different discourses? Do you need to come to the same space?

I felt that I was not really getting the essence, so as methodological strategy, I began to check my understanding during the interview. As I did, I found out that my understanding was vastly different from the participant's. This made me reconceptualize how I gave meaning to the essence of Alex's writing and how he gave meaning to that essence. Well, given that Alex has a good background in philosophical literature, I felt that Alex was perfectly capable of authoring his own essence and the meaning he gave to it. My job then became a process of methodological reflection.