A phenomenological study of the meaning of geography teacher-researcher identities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to interpret the meaning of geography teacher-researcher identities (GTRIs) using van Manen phenomenology. The raw data were obtained through in-depth interviews with nine South Korean geography teacher-researchers (GTRs). The meaningful and significant sentences and phrases were coded into 248 nodes and eventually classified into four themes to interpret the meaning of GTRIs. First, the GTRs continuously engaged in research as they appreciated the potential of academic methodologies and theories to improve the status of geography. Second, their professional identities encouraged the GTRs’ continuous engagement in academic activities. Third, the GTRs reported that they produced contextual knowledge and discussions of real contexts for geography education from the perspective of practitioners. Fourth, the GTRs strongly identified as geography teachers and engaged in research based on their teacher identities. The results of this study contribute to a renewed understanding of GTRs’ specific meaning and potential in geography teaching and geography education research.

Keywords:

• Geography teacher-researcher
• geography teacher-researcher identity
• geography education research
• practitioner research
• teacher education

Note

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work obtained ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board of Catholic Kwandong University (CKU-18-02-0105).

Notes

1 Phenomenology is rooted in the philosophical trend, proposed by Edmund Husserl, emphasizing unbiased and naturalistic description of a phenomenon (descriptive phenomenology), but a series of subsequent phenomenologists, influenced by Martin Heidegger, developed a new school of phenomenology focusing on the interpretation of a phenomenon (hermeneutic phenomenology) (Converse, 2012; Dowling, 2007).