The personal and the political: how a feminist standpoint theory epistemology guided an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

Given the call for increased emphasis on multicultural and social justice orientations in the field of counselling psychology, this manuscript explores how the union of different knowledge traditions might offer further means of incorporating culturally sensitive and social justice perspectives into traditional knowledge discovery. We propose that afeminist standpoint theory (FST) epistemology may be a helpful guiding framework for a research method such as an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) that can potentially enrich the exploration of personal experiences and the systemic dynamics that influence them. This manuscript arose out growing awareness and understanding of the benefits and challenges faced when engaging in research that used a pluralistic approach. To illustrate one adaptive way of combining these approaches we present examples from a research study that engaged a FST epistemology with an IPA methodological approach. These examples will be used to support a discussion of the important philosophical tensions that exist between FST and IPA, and to examine the challenges and benefits that integration might bring to enhance a researcher’s ability to explore the complex nature of human experience and social relationships.

Keywords:

• feminist standpoint theory
• interpretative phenomenological analysis
• knowledge acquisition
• counselling psychology research
• pluralistic approach

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julie A. Cohen

Dr. Julie A. Cohen's doctoral dissertation research explored multicultural and social justice competency in Canadian counselling psychology graduate programs.

Anusha Kassan

Dr. Anusha Kassan is an Associate Professor in the CPA-Accredited programme in School and Applied Child Psychology at the University of British Columbia.

Kaori Wada

Dr. Kaori Wada is an Associate Professor in the CPA-Acreditted programme in Educational Studies in Counselling Psychology at the University of Calgary.

Megan Suehn

Dr. Megan Suehn's doctoral dissertation research explored experiences of identity development within the context of multiple-marginalization.