CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

I. INTRODUCTION

Phenomenology is a qualitative research method originally developed by the philosopher Edmund Husserl.[1] The termed phenomenology is both a philosophy and a research method. As a philosophy, phenomenology is a particular way of approaching the world and apprehending lived experience[2]. As a research method, phenomenology is a rigorous process of reexamining what Husserl termed “the things themselves.”[3] The question of phenomenological inquiry is about the meaning of human experience and asks, “What is it like?” Phenomenology is a way of thinking about what life experiences are like for people[4] and is primarily concerned with interpreting the meaning of these experiences. Phenomenological research “explores the humanness of a being in the world”[5]. Bergum refers to the phenomenological research method as an “action-sensitive-understanding” that begins and ends in the practical acting of everyday life and leads to a practical knowledge of thoughtful action. Phenomenological research is an introspective human science, the intent of which is to interpret and to understand as opposed to observing, measuring, explaining, and predicting)[6]. The intention is to go beyond the aspects of life taken for granted and “to uncover the meanings in everyday practice in such a way that they are not destroyed, distorted, decontextualized, trivialized or sentimentalized”.[7] To answer the question, “What is it like?” and to enter into the dialectic of the study and fully portray the reality of the experience, a process of phenomenological reduction is utilized.[8] On the other hand, lived experience refers to what an individual, group, or community experiences for itself, rather than a reality that may be determined by those outside of that individual, group, or community. It involves not only