The personal and the political: how a feminist standpoint theory epistemology guided an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

Abstract Given the call for increased emphasis on multicultural and social justice orientations in the field of counselling psychology, this manuscript explores how the union of different knowledge traditions might offer further means of incorporating culturally sensitive and social justice perspectives into traditional knowledge discovery. We propose that afeminist standpoint theory (FST) epistemology may be a helpful guiding framework for a research method such as an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) that can potentially enrich the exploration of personal experiences and the systemic dynamics that influence them. This manuscript arose out growing awareness and understanding of the benefits and challenges faced when engaging in research that used a pluralistic approach. To illustrate one adaptive way of combining these approaches we present examples from a research study that engaged a FST epistemology with an IPA methodological approach. These examples will be used to support a discussion of the important philosophical tensions that exist between FST and IPA, and to examine the challenges and benefits that integration might bring to enhance a researcher’s ability to explore the complex nature of human experience and social relationships.