Understanding Lived Experiences through Inclusive Lens of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Interpretative Poetics (IP)

Since the late 1990s Finland had experienced an influx of foreign students and workforce from African countries. The demographic scene of Finland, predominantly white, had changed; Finland became culturally diversified. This diversification created opportunities and challenges. Finns experienced multiculturalism firsthand, both within organisations and in everyday life. The foreigners from African countries brought with them their cultures, but also had to adapt to the demands of their new host culture in Finland.
In view of the above, my qualitative PhD study, completed in 2021, investigated how black educated professionals, from selected African countries, experienced their life and work in a foreign host culture in Finland.

The paper describes the inclusivity of two methodological approaches, adopted in the PhD study: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and elements of Interpretative Poetics (IP), as part of Narrative Analysis (NA).
The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and involved ten participants: five females and five males from selected African countries.

By incorporating elements of IP into IPA, the study allowed for an additional analytical space within IPA, thus enriching it as a methodology. Applying IP, a narrative analytical tool, showed that IPA can be successfully adopted by researchers from outside the field of psychology, health psychology, and medicine, where IPA is predominantly applied. It further showed that experiences other than those connected to illness and health, can be successfully investigated.

In addition, implementing parts of IP into IPA proved of particular value in this cross-cultural study where a close analysis of the spoken words at the textual level provided additional analytical depth. This was not only helpful in the analysis, but also provided additional validity to the findings.