Combining Phenomenology with Bourdieu to Explore Perceptions of Research Quality: a Methodological Perspective from China

This paper draws on a research project that explored Chinese English-language academics’ perceptions of research quality in the fields of education and applied linguistics. The project combined phenomenology and Bourdieu’s theory and used four qualitative research methods – questionnaire, interview, focus groups and document analysis. This paper discusses the first aspect of this mixed qualitative methodology: combining phenomenology and Bourdieu within one study. It discusses the theoretical issues involved in such a combination of what could be seen as contradictory ideas, and illustrates the value of the combination by describing its use in analysing data from the interviews and focus groups. This paper also explores the philosophical and methodological issues and how they were resolved to get maximum quality benefit – despite the inevitable challenges. It argues that this illustrates boundary-crossing in inquiry and the combination of Phenomenology with Bourdieu could offer a promising framework for others to build on, particular in culturally specific contexts.