Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in education research: An apposite system of analysis for exploring student spiritual growth in secondary schooling.
Abstract
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is an experiential research methodology informed by hermeneutics, idiography and phenomenology. In applying IPA, researchers aim to investigate human lived experience through exploring how participants construct meaning of their experiences from their personal and social contexts. The process is double hermeneutic; an IPA researcher works to make sense of the participants making sense of their world. It is proposed that IPA is an apposite research methodology in gaining insight into the human experience of spiritual growth in an educational context.
Student spiritual growth is a clear priority in Catholic secondary schools. It underpins the Church’s mission of evangelisation that lies at the heart of the Catholic school, while aiding the provision of a holistic education. Student spiritual growth also leads to human flourishing through building resilience and improving a sense of self-efficacy and wellbeing. These positive health outcomes provide young people with protective factors in facing life challenges. It follows that providing secondary students with spiritual growth opportunities to nourish their faith, and concurrently help them navigate contextual challenges they may encounter living in the modern world, is essential.
This poster aims to review the application of IPA in an Australian study on student spiritual growth. The study explores the perceptions of post-school women from Mercy Education Limited (MEL) schools in Western Australia (WA) about the influence of their secondary school experience on their spiritual growth. In utilising IPA, the study seeks to reveal the influences critical to the spiritual growth of secondary school girls in MEL schools in WA, with a view to providing an evidence base for educative practice.
Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in education research: An apposite system of analysis for exploring student spiritual growth in secondary schooling.
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is an experiential research methodology informed by hermeneutics, idiography and phenomenology. In applying IPA, researchers aim to investigate human lived experience through exploring how participants construct meaning of their experiences from their personal and social contexts. The process is double hermeneutic; an IPA researcher works to make sense of the participants making sense of their world. It is proposed that IPA is an apposite research methodology in gaining insight into the human experience of spiritual growth in an educational context.
Student spiritual growth is a clear priority in Catholic secondary schools. It underpins the Church’s mission of evangelisation that lies at the heart of the Catholic school, while aiding the provision of a holistic education. Student spiritual growth also leads to human flourishing through building resilience and improving a sense of self-efficacy and wellbeing. These positive health outcomes provide young people with protective factors in facing life challenges. It follows that providing secondary students with spiritual growth opportunities to nourish their faith, and concurrently help them navigate contextual challenges they may encounter living in the modern world, is essential.
This poster aims to review the application of IPA in an Australian study on student spiritual growth. The study explores the perceptions of post-school women from Mercy Education Limited (MEL) schools in Western Australia (WA) about the influence of their secondary school experience on their spiritual growth. In utilising IPA, the study seeks to reveal the influences critical to the spiritual growth of secondary school girls in MEL schools in WA, with a view to providing an evidence base for educative practice.