Phenomenology, physical education, and special populations

Maureen Connolly

pp. 25-40

in: Human Studies 18 (1), 1995.

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the complementarity between phenomenology and physical education as human sciences, and discusses how a consideration of this relation might inform the questions we ask and the methods we use in our research and teaching. We enter the common ground shared by phenomenology and physical education by way of three sensitizing concepts: lived experience, intersubjectivity, and "insiders' stories. Using examples from physical education and phenomenology, the paper shows the connections between these two increasingly compatible partners, emphasizes the primary connection — the body — and shows the practical and heuristic applications of phenomenology in the lifeworld of physical education.