Myth, Magic & Method: Using Subphenomenology to Analyse Weblog Data

Introduction

A famous psychologist once said:

Such a technique is Subphenomenology. The method of free-association data collection lifts the lid of the unconscious so that images and forms may appear to the conscious mind through dream and meditation.

C. Q. University, in Australia, has a current research project that is seeking to better understand the nature of web-based Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and the consequential implications of these PLEs for teaching and learning. The proverbial elephant in the lounge room however, is that many otherwise capable academics, still resist technology. As a Research Fellow with this project, and oddly, a self-confessed (but now evangelised) technophobe, I used my blog data to map and analyse the learning curve resulting from my new and frequent encounters with Web 2.0 technology. Using an arts-based, qualitative methodology that I had developed and published earlier, I analysed the blog entries to gain insights into this phenomenon of academic 'end-user' resistance to technology. The methodology is called Subtextual Phenomenology (Vallack, 2005a), indicating subliminal meaning behind the language used to describe the phenomenoa. For the sake of eloquence, and possibly because I have now served time in the technologists' den of acronyms, where everything can seem abbreviated to the point of obscurity, I will hence-forth refer to the methodology as Subphenomenology. This chapter is about the structure of Subphenomenology, and it demonstrates an approach to using blog data for research. Firstly I will set out a brief description of the current research context in which I am using Subphenomenology, along with the research results. Then I will present the structure of this methodology and argue for its philosophical rigor. Finally I will illustrate the methodology with the outcome of our current research and demonstrate the potential of Subphenomenology as a template for further blog analysis.

So what is the outcome of the PLE inquiry into academic technophobia? Using Subphenomenology, it became evident that the relationship between a recalcitrant technologist and the technology itself may be akin to that of Echo and Narcissus. Here is the story of Echo and Narcissus: