Post-Intentional Phenomenology as Ethical and Transformative Inquiry and Practice: Through Intercultural Phenomenological Dialogue

Abstract

This study is a conceptual dialogue aimed at attaining insight into reading and developing postintentional phenomenology as intercultural philosophical inquiry. This conversation commences with the problem of Eurocentric phenomenology and introduces several examples of intercultural phenomenological attempts which fail to move beyond the validation of non-European philosophy using a Eurocentric viewpoint. The first section of this study introduces possible conditions and approaches for intercultural phenomenology, drawing mainly on Kwok-Ying Lau’s (2016) work on phenomenology and intercultural understanding, with a view to extending the scope of phenomenological research beyond the limitations of a Eurocentric attitude largely influenced by and inherited from Husserl. The second section considers ways in which the understanding and approach of post-intentional phenomenology could be widened and deepened by the intercultural dimension, and vice versa. Building on these discussions, the paper concludes with a brief consideration of the implications for phenomenological research and of how an intercultural understanding and approach inform research design. Following “lines of flight” in these discussions, post-intentional phenomenology is proposed as an ethical and transformative inquiry.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Younkyung Hong

Younkyung Hong is a doctoral candidate in elementary education, with specific focus on curriculum and instruction, at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where she teaches an undergraduate course in the Elementary Teacher Education programme and supervises Master’s degree students in their licensure programmes.

Previously a public elementary school teacher in Seoul, South Korea, Younkyung Hong, before embarking on her doctoral studies in the United States, participated in educational activism as a member of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU).

Younkyung’s research interests include situating and challenging Western/Eurocentric perspectives in contexts beyond the USA, and in this regard she has been developing her work on topics related to elementary education, social justice education, teacher education, and discourse analysis with a phenomenological perspective.

Younkyung Hong’s work aims to encourage preservice teachers to ask critical questions about social issues and to connect their academic learning with their teaching practice and daily lives.