Using phenomenography to understand the research-teaching nexus

Abstract

A close relationship between teaching and research is one which is espoused by most academics, yet there is little empirical evidence to support the relationship. This article shows how phenomenography is being used in a project to try to understand the research-teaching nexus. Case studies drawn from phenomenographic categories of description are used to show that when teachers see the subject matter of their teaching holistically, and see and illustrate links between this wider field and their teaching topics, they are more likely to describe their research as being conducted from a similar holistic perspective. And when teachers tend to concentrate on isolated packets of knowledge, on lists of content and on skills development, their research is more likely to be described in terms of a series of unrelated projects. The use of this qualitative result in the design of future quantitative research approaches is foreshadowed.

Keywords:

• approaches to teaching
• experience of research
• experience of teaching
• phenomenography
• research-teaching relations