Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Research Community
Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Research Community is a peer-reviewed platform dedicated to publishing high-quality research across a wide range of disciplines. Published by PT Mukhlisina Revolution Center, MultiVerse aims to provide a collaborative space for scholars, researchers, and professionals to share groundbreaking insights and findings that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in various fields. Our proceedings cover topics from science, technology, engineering, social sciences, business, and more, fostering an interdisciplinary approach to research. Each paper undergoes a rigorous double-blind review process to ensure academic integrity and relevance. We are committed to providing open access to the proceedings, ensuring that knowledge is accessible to the global community. First International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Multidisciplinary Research (ICAI-MR 2024) The First International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Multidisciplinary Research (ICAI-MR 2024) was successfully held on August 10–11, 2024, through a virtual conference on the Zoom platform. This international conference was organized by the AI-MRC International Office, Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, and served as a global forum for researchers, academics, and practitioners to exchange knowledge, ideas, and innovative research findings. The Proceeding welcomes submissions from both established and emerging researchers, with the goal of promoting innovative ideas that drive progress and positive change across multiple sectors. Read More Indexed In:
Exploring the Lived Experience in a Phenomenological Inquiry of Meaning-Making and Interpretation among Readers of Arabic Classical and Sufi Texts
Arabic literary studies and philology play a crucial role in preserving the cultural and intellectual heritage of the Arab world, yet their traditional focus has often emphasized textual and historical analysis over lived human experience. Within this field, limited attention has been given to how readers subjectively experience and interpret Arabic classical and Sufi literature as meaningful, transformative encounters. Despite growing scholarly interest, there remains a clearly identifiable research gap regarding how phenomenological processes shape readers’ interpretive engagement with these texts. What remains unclear is how readers internalize, embody, and reconstruct the meaning of these texts through emotional, aesthetic, and spiritual engagement. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, this study explores the lived experience of readers interacting with Arabic literary works to uncover the essence of interpretive meaning as it manifests in consciousness. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with ten participants experienced in Arabic classical and Sufi literature and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The results reveal that reading these texts functions as an existential and aesthetic act that intertwines spirituality, emotion, and identity, producing an ongoing dialogue between tradition and self-understanding. The findings also show that digital reading contexts are reshaping interpretive experiences, allowing for new forms of communal reflection and cultural continuity. These insights broaden current literary theory by positioning Arabic literature as a lived phenomenon rather than a static textual artifact, offering new directions for interdisciplinary and phenomenological research in the humanities.
Copyright (c) 2026 Uus Rustiman (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Experiences of Faith and Ethical Meaning in Sharia-Based Digital Entrepreneurship: A Qualitative Inquiry among Digital Entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia
The rapid growth of the digital economy has reshaped the ethical and spiritual dimensions of Muslim entrepreneurship, particularly within the framework of Sharia-based business practices. Within this evolving landscape, the lived experiences of Muslim digital entrepreneurs remain underexplored, especially regarding how faith and spirituality influence ethical decision-making in digital commerce. What remains unclear is how these entrepreneurs interpret, internalize, and embody Islamic ethical principles while navigating the challenges of online business environments. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), this study investigates the subjective meanings and moral reflections of Sharia-compliant entrepreneurs to address this gap. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve participants and analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns of spiritual awareness, ethical tension, and personal accountability. The analysis identified three core findings: (1) faith-based awareness consistently shaped ethical choices in pricing, transparency, and customer treatment; (2) participants experienced recurring ethical tensions related to digital competition and technological constraints; and (3) maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah served as a practical decision-making guide rather than an abstract principle. The results reveal that participants perceive their business activities as acts of worship and moral devotion, where faith-based consciousness functions as an intrinsic ethical compass guiding their digital interactions. Overall, the study demonstrates measurable patterns of ethical reasoning grounded in spirituality, highlighting how these patterns contribute to more responsible and sustainability-oriented digital business practices. These findings advance our understanding of Islamic digital entrepreneurship by demonstrating that spirituality and innovation are complementary forces in shaping ethical and sustainable business practices. The implications highlight the potential of phenomenological inquiry to deepen cross-disciplinary perspectives on faith, technology, and moral consciousness in contemporary Muslim societies.
Copyright (c) 2026 A. Suganda (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Understanding Humanistic Supervision and Administrative Pressure in the Experiences of Primary School Teachers
Instructional supervision in primary education is increasingly recognized as an essential component of teacher development, particularly as schools navigate rising administrative demands and relational expectations. Within this context, understanding teachers’ lived experiences has become a crucial focus for research seeking to clarify how emotional, cultural, and organizational dynamics shape professional meaning. However, little is known about how teachers interpret humanistic supervision when it coexists with substantial bureaucratic pressure, raising the central question of how they negotiate and make sense of this dual experience. Here, we use an interpretative phenomenological approach to reveal how teachers construct meaning from the intersection of supportive supervisory practices and administrative workload. The study involved a total of 12 primary school teachers, generating approximately 18 hours of recorded interviews from in-depth semi-structured sessions. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with primary school teachers, the study analyzed their narratives using interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify the emotional, relational, and identity-based processes that underlie their supervisory experiences. The findings show that teachers perceive humanistic supervision as simultaneously validating and demanding, engage in emotional negotiation to maintain their professional identity, and employ adaptive strategies to balance relational support with institutional expectations. These narrative patterns demonstrate that the essence of supervision lies more in interpersonal meaning-making than in formal supervisory procedures. The results therefore illuminate how teachers internalize supervision as a lived experience shaped by the ongoing tension between support and pressure. These insights broaden current theoretical understanding of supervision and offer implications for future research aimed at developing supervisory models that honor both human experience and systemic responsibility.
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Copyright (c) 2026 Anggi Rivana (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Interpreting the Lived Experiences and Meaning-Making of Climate Adaptation among Dryland Farmers Facing Shifting Rainfall Patterns
Climate variability has become a central concern in environmental and social sciences due to its profound effects on rural livelihoods. Within this broader field, limited attention has been given to the subjective experiences of dryland farmers who navigate unpredictable rainfall patterns and the cultural and emotional meanings embedded in their adaptive practices. However, little is known about how these farmers interpret climatic uncertainty in their everyday lives, leading to the key question of how they construct meaning around their adaptive responses. Here we show that an interpretative phenomenological approach reveals adaptation as a deeply experiential process shaped by emotional, social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with dryland farmers, we applied Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to systematically explore meaning-making processes. The analysis generated four core experiential themes: enduring uncertainty, engaging in collective coping, mobilizing ecological knowledge, and grounding responses in spiritual values. These findings demonstrate, in concrete terms, how adaptation is understood and lived, highlighting that adaptive action extends beyond technical adjustments into meaning-centered engagement with environmental change. The study offers a concise contribution to climate adaptation scholarship by foregrounding farmers’ lived interpretations and emphasizing the relevance of human-centered insights for future policy and research.
Copyright (c) 2026 Rustam Anwar (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Meaning of AI-Mediated Shopping Experiences among Online Fashion Consumers
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of digital commerce, shaping how consumers navigate online environments and interact with algorithmic systems. Within this broader landscape, AI-driven fashion shopping presents a unique context in which emotional, relational, and experiential dynamics remain insufficiently understood. However, little is known about how customers interpret their lived experiences with AI during online shopping, leading to the central question of how they construct meaning around algorithmic influence and emotional engagement. This study uses an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore the essential meanings embedded in customers’ interactions with AI-driven features. To ensure methodological transparency, the study employed purposive sampling and recruited [insert actual number] online fashion consumers aged [insert age range] who had prior experience with AI-driven recommendation systems. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis, the study identifies key experiential themes, including ambivalent trust, perceived warmth, loss of autonomy, and emerging digital intimacy, which reveal how customers negotiate both comfort and vulnerability when engaging with AI. These themes demonstrate that AI functions not only as a recommendation tool but also as an influential actor shaping emotional, cognitive, and relational dimensions of consumer behavior. The findings extend current understandings of AI-mediated consumption by highlighting the complex meaning-making processes that unfold beneath conventional behavioral or functional evaluations. This contributes to a deeper understanding of consumer experience and provides direction for future research on AI, digital emotions, and the evolving relationships between humans and intelligent systems.
Copyright (c) 2026 Moses Lorensius Parlinggoman Hutabarat (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Enhancing Vocational EFL Learners’ Reading and Listening through Animated Narratives: A Quasi-Experimental Study
This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of animated narrative digital literature on receptive language skills among tenth-grade students at SMK Muhammadiyah 2 Bontoala Makassar. Two intact classes (N ≈ 60) were purposively selected based on school scheduling and assigned to either the experimental group (animated short films) or the control group (printed texts with audio). Both groups completed pretests and posttests in reading and listening comprehension. The intervention consisted of eight 90-minute sessions focusing on narrative organization, contextual meaning, and speaker tone. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS 25, comparing gain scores and proficiency distributions across the groups. In reading, the experimental group improved from 56 to 134 (Δ = +78), while the control group increased from 28 to 46.5 (Δ = +18.5), showing a greater improvement in the experimental group. In listening, the experimental group’s total rose from 87 to 208 (Δ = +121), compared to the control group’s increase from 28 to 45 (Δ = +17), demonstrating a significantly larger gain. These findings highlight the practical advantages of animated narrative digital literature for enhancing both reading and listening comprehension, supporting multimedia and dual-coding theories of learning.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sitti Asriati, Megawati (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Meaning of Digital Teaching Experiences among Language Educators in Online Learning Contexts
The rapid digitalization of education has transformed the field of Applied Linguistics, redefining how teachers and learners engage, communicate, and construct meaning in online learning environments. Within this shift, the phenomenon of digital language teaching has become a critical subject of inquiry, as it encapsulates the complex intersection of pedagogy, technology, and professional identity. However, little is known about how educators experience and make sense of this transformation at a personal and emotional level, leaving a gap in understanding the lived meaning behind digital teaching practices. Accordingly, this study addresses the following research questions: (1) How do language educators interpret their professional roles within digitally mediated teaching environments? and (2) What lived meanings do they construct as they navigate digital pedagogical practices? This study employs an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the essence of language teachers’ lived experiences as they adapt to and interpret their professional roles in digitally mediated contexts. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit ten English language educators with at least three years of online teaching experience, and data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The analytical procedure followed IPA’s iterative stages of reading, coding, and thematic interpretation, enabling the identification of shared meaning structures and transformative experiences. Three key themes emerged: (1) digital teaching as an ongoing process of professional identity reconstruction; (2) emotional negotiation shaped by uncertainty, cognitive load, and evolving self-efficacy; and (3) relational redefinition as teachers recalibrated presence, connection, and communicative agency in virtual spaces. The results reveal that online teaching is not merely a technical adjustment but a process of identity reconstruction, emotional negotiation, and relational redefinition, highlighting the human depth of digital pedagogy. These findings extend theoretical understanding in applied linguistics by framing digital education as an existential experience of becoming rather than a procedural shift. This study contributes to the development of more reflective, empathetic, and human-centered approaches to teacher education and offers new directions for cross-cultural and longitudinal phenomenological research.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mas'ud Muhammadiah (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Meaning of AI-Mediated Travel Planning in the Lived Experiences of Contemporary Travelers
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into digital travel services has transformed how individuals plan and experience tourism in contemporary digital environments. Within this evolving landscape, travelers increasingly engage with automated platforms, yet little is known about the subjective meanings they construct during these interactions. Despite growing research on trust and technology adoption, prior studies offer limited insight into how travelers interpret and emotionally respond to AI-mediated travel planning; therefore, this study asks: How do travelers make sense of their lived experiences when interacting with AI-based digital travel agent services? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, this study reveals the experiential structures that shape travelers’ engagement with automated travel systems. Through in-depth interviews and systematic interpretative analysis, the findings demonstrate that travelers navigate emotional ambivalence, negotiate trust, and construct perceived value through both cognitive and affective processes, highlighting the complex and relational nature of human–AI interaction. Data were analyzed through a structured IPA procedure involving multiple close readings, initial noting, emergent theme development, cross-case analysis, and the clustering of superordinate themes. These themes emerged through multiple readings of interview transcripts, interpretative coding, and the identification of superordinate meanings grounded in participants’ narratives. The results show that AI-based travel services are experienced not merely as functional tools but as dynamic spaces where travelers balance efficiency with emotional reassurance and contextual understanding. This study advances theoretical and practical knowledge by demonstrating the need for more human-centered and context-sensitive design in AI-driven tourism services.
Copyright (c) 2026 Anas Pattaray (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring Ethical Communication and Moral Responsibility in Governance: An Interpretative Study of Political Communicators’ Lived Experiences in Indonesia’s Democratic Context
Political communication within governance has increasingly become a focal point for understanding how ethical integrity and public trust are constructed in modern democratic contexts. Within this broader field, the subjective experiences of political communicators remain underexplored, particularly regarding how they navigate moral and emotional tensions in their professional practice. Despite extensive studies on communication strategy and persuasion, little is known about how communicators experience and interpret ethical responsibility within institutional and political constraints. To address this empirical and conceptual gap, this study employs a clearly defined interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), involving systematic coding, cross-case analysis, and reflexive interpretation. This study addresses that gap by asking: How do political communicators perceive and enact moral responsibility in the practice of governance communication? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), the study explores the lived experiences of twelve political communicators through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on their roles in governmental and electoral communication units, and data were analyzed using a stepwise IPA procedure consisting of initial noting, emergent theme development, and clustering of superordinate themes. The analysis reveals four major themes: the ethical dilemmas in digital political campaigns, the negotiation of public trust, the strain of political polarization on communicative integrity, and the emergence of moral resilience among communicators. Specifically, the findings show that ethical dilemmas arise from pressure to manipulate digital narratives; public trust is negotiated through strategic transparency practices; polarization produces communicative fatigue that threatens ethical consistency; and moral resilience develops as a coping mechanism enabling communicators to uphold principled decision-making. These findings illustrate that ethical communication is not a fixed principle but a reflective and relational process shaped by context, conscience, and institutional power. The study demonstrates that phenomenology provides a robust framework for uncovering the inner meaning and emotional depth of communicative ethics in governance. The study’s implications include: (1) providing measurable indicators of ethical practice such as transparency benchmarks and moral resilience strategies; (2) offering actionable guidelines for training political communicators in ethical decision-making; and (3) informing governance institutions about structural conditions that support or hinder ethical communication. The results contribute to a more human-centered understanding of communication ethics and offer practical implications for promoting integrity, transparency, and empathy in public discourse.
Copyright (c) 2026 Diah Fatma Sjoraida (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
An Interpretative Exploration of Lived Experiences in Digital Public Service among Civil Servants and Citizens
Digital transformation has redefined the landscape of public administration by introducing e-Government systems that aim to enhance transparency, accessibility, and efficiency in public service delivery. Within this transformation, understanding the lived experiences of civil servants and citizens has become increasingly essential, as technology not only changes administrative procedures but also reshapes human interaction with governance. However, existing studies have predominantly focused on technical or managerial aspects, leaving unexplored how individuals emotionally and cognitively experience digital governance in their daily lives. This study employs an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach to uncover the subjective meanings embedded in the experiences of civil servants and citizens within e-Government systems. To ensure methodological rigor, the study followed established IPA procedures, including iterative coding, idiographic case analysis, cross-case theme development, and researcher reflexivity to maintain analytic transparency. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with sixteen participants representing both administrative staff and service users, and were subjected to a systematic thematic interpretation to identify core experiential patterns. The findings reveal that digital governance is experienced as both empowering and constraining—while promoting efficiency and transparency, it simultaneously generates emotional tension, identity redefinition, and concerns over depersonalization. More specifically, participants reported challenges related to digital workload intensification, reduced interpersonal connection, and uneven digital literacy, alongside positive experiences of improved autonomy and service accessibility. These insights highlight that the true success of digital transformation lies not merely in technological advancement but in how human values, emotions, and relationships are preserved and integrated within governance systems. The study offers clear implications for policymakers, emphasizing the need for human-centered digital service design, targeted digital literacy support, and organizational strategies that mitigate emotional strain among civil servants and citizens. The study broadens the understanding of digital public administration as a socio-emotional phenomenon and offers a human-centered framework for future policy and research.
Copyright (c) 2026 Choirul Anam (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring Teachers’ Experiences of Digital Critical Reading Instruction in Secondary School Learning Environments in Indonesia
Digital literacy has become a central concern in contemporary education as digital environments reshape how individuals engage with information, requiring new forms of critical reading competence. Within this evolving landscape, teachers’ experiences in navigating digitally mediated reading instruction remain understudied despite growing scholarly interest in the complexities of digital pedagogy. The specific phenomenon of how teachers interpret the emotional, cognitive, and pedagogical demands of teaching critical reading in digital contexts is still not well understood, raising the key question of how these experiences shape their instructional responses. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, this study draws on in-depth semi-structured interviews with six secondary school teachers in Indonesia and reveals how teachers make sense of information overload, shifting student behaviors, and tensions between digital immediacy and reflective reading. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews and interpretative thematic analysis, the study shows that teachers experience digital critical reading instruction as a dynamic negotiation involving emotional strain, cognitive burden, and adaptive pedagogical reasoning; that they report three core experiential themes: (1) heightened emotional fatigue due to constant digital disruptions, (2) cognitive overload arising from fragmented digital texts, and (3) pedagogical adaptation characterised by the development of scaffolding techniques to foster deeper student engagement; that they develop personalized strategies to counter superficial reading habits; and that they construct meaning from these challenges in ways that influence their professional identities. These findings emerge from iterative coding, clustering of meaning units, and hermeneutic interpretation that illuminate the essence of teachers’ lived experiences in digital learning environments. The results enhance our understanding of digital literacy instruction by foregrounding the human experiences behind pedagogical decisions and highlighting the need for more reflective, experience-centered approaches in future research while offering concrete implications for teacher training and digital curriculum design.
Copyright (c) 2026 Syamsul Ghufron (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Meaning of Safety and Independence among Solo Female Travelers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Experiences in International Urban Contexts
Solo female travel in international urban environments has emerged as a significant area of study within tourism sciences due to its complex social, cultural, and embodied dimensions. Within this broad field, research increasingly highlights the need to understand how women interpret safety, independence, and emotional experiences during solo travel. Although prior studies have examined risk perception and gendered mobility, little is known about how women construct the meaning of safety and autonomy through moment-to-moment lived experiences, leading to the central question of how these meanings emerge in urban travel contexts. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, this study reveals how solo female travelers develop embodied awareness, negotiate social interactions, and cultivate personal independence while navigating unfamiliar environments. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine participants and systematic interpretative analysis, the study identified key experiential structures, including embodied vigilance, relational negotiation, emotional transformation, and self-constructed safety practices. In contrast to earlier theory-heavy discussions, the findings foreground several clear and essential insights: women’s sense of safety emerges through continuous bodily appraisal, rapid interpretation of social cues, and personalized strategies for managing uncertainty. These findings demonstrate that women's sense of safety is not determined solely by external conditions but is dynamically shaped through bodily perception, social interpretation, and reflexive meaning-making, which also contributes to the development of personal agency. Practically, the results highlight the need for tourism stakeholders to design information systems, urban wayfinding tools, and safety communication that align with how solo female travelers actually assess and navigate risk. The study further shows that independence evolves as a transformative outcome of navigating uncertainty, interpreting risk, and engaging with diverse urban atmospheres. Overall, the revised analysis clarifies how the experiential processes identified here offer both theoretical value for gendered mobility research and actionable insights for enhancing solo female travel experiences. The findings also provide a foundation for future studies examining diverse traveler identities and cultural contexts.
Copyright (c) 2026 Hetty Claudia Nainggolan (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Meaning of Justice, Forgiveness, and Moral Restoration in Islamic Criminal Law Contexts
Justice within Islamic criminal law represents a profound intersection between divine command and human morality, reflecting both legal and spiritual dimensions of human experience. Despite the growing body of literature on qisas (retributive justice), diyat (monetary compensation), and ta’zir (discretionary punishment), little is known about how individuals personally experience and internalize these concepts in their lived realities. This study addresses this gap by asking: How is justice experienced and given meaning by victims, offenders, and judges within the framework of Islamic criminal law? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), this research explores the moral and emotional meanings individuals ascribe to punishment, forgiveness, and divine justice. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve participants and analyzed using a systematic IPA procedure, including idiographic coding, experiential theme development, and cross-case synthesis, to ensure methodological rigor. The analysis yielded three core experiential themes: (1) justice as a negotiated moral responsibility shaped through personal suffering and accountability; (2) forgiveness as a spiritually motivated act enabling emotional release and relational repair; and (3) judicial decision-making as a process of balancing divine justice with human compassion. These themes demonstrate that justice in Islamic contexts is not merely retributive but embedded in a restorative moral horizon. Judges articulated their role as interpreters of divine intent, balancing al-‘adl (justice) and al-ihsan (compassion) in decision-making. Overall, the study highlights justice as a lived moral phenomenon grounded in spiritual consciousness and relational healing, offering clearer pathways for integrating experiential insights into contemporary interpretations of Islamic criminal law.
Copyright (c) 2026 R. Arif Muljohadi (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Emotional Meaning of Radiographers’ Experiences During First Radiotherapy Sessions with Cancer Patients
Radiotherapy represents a technologically advanced yet emotionally complex domain within modern healthcare, where precision and empathy must coexist in patient care. Within this field, the emotional and existential experiences of radiographers—especially during their first encounters with cancer patients—remain underexplored despite their critical role in shaping therapeutic relationships. The existing literature has largely focused on technical competence and stress metrics, leaving unclear how radiographers interpret and find meaning in their emotional engagement with patients. This study addresses that gap through a concise phenomenological inquiry examining how radiographers experience and make sense of their emotions during the first radiotherapy session. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), data were obtained through semi-structured interviews lasting 45–60 minutes with ten radiographers recruited purposively from oncology centers. All procedures received institutional ethical approval, and interviews were analyzed through iterative coding and thematic interpretation. The results identified four essential themes—emotional weight of the first encounter, balancing professionalism and empathy, emotional containment, and meaning-making through empathic resonance—which together illustrate the existential depth of radiographers’ emotional worlds. Findings indicate that empathy operates as a professional resource rather than a form of emotional fragility, strengthening ethical judgment and patient connection. This study expands current understanding of radiotherapy practice by reframing emotional experience as a vital dimension of professional competence, offering a conceptual foundation for empathy-based education and clinical training.
Copyright (c) 2026 Wilda Wahyuni (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Experiences of Emotional and Ethical Engagement among Radiographers and Patients in Radiotherapy Practice in Indonesia
Radiotherapy and radiodiagnostic science represent a vital intersection between medical technology and human care, where precision, empathy, and ethical responsibility converge in clinical practice. Within this field, increasing attention has been directed toward understanding the lived experiences of healthcare professionals and patients who navigate the emotional and moral complexities of technologically mediated treatment. Despite existing research on technical proficiency and patient satisfaction, little is known about how radiographers and patients interpret and construct meaning from their experiences during radiotherapy. This study addresses this gap by applying a phenomenological approach to explore the essence of emotional, ethical, and professional engagement in radiotherapy practice. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the study involved a total of 12 participants, consisting of 6 radiographers (with 3–15 years of clinical experience) and 6 patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy. Participants were recruited purposively from a tertiary oncology center to ensure variation in age, treatment stage, and professional background. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with radiographers and patients at a tertiary oncology center, then analyzed thematically to uncover patterns of meaning. The findings revealed five core themes: emotional fatigue, ethical responsibility, communicative empathy, coping mechanisms, and existential reflection—each illustrating the deeply human dimension of radiological work. These results demonstrate that radiotherapy practice is not solely defined by technical precision but also by the moral and relational connections that sustain care. The study advances the understanding of how phenomenology can enrich medical practice by illuminating the emotional realities behind procedural excellence and offers a reflective foundation for improving both professional well-being and patient-centered care.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ahmad Hariri (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Experiences and Meanings of Care Among Midwives in High-Risk Maternity Units
Midwifery plays a crucial role in promoting maternal health, combining scientific competence with compassionate human engagement during childbirth. Within this field, limited attention has been given to understanding the lived experiences of midwives who navigate emotional and ethical complexities in high-risk maternity care. Although prior studies have addressed the technical and psychological aspects of the profession, little is known about how midwives construct meaning from their caregiving experiences in emotionally demanding contexts. This study addresses that gap by asking: How do midwives interpret and find meaning in their lived experiences of providing care during high-risk childbirth? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), this research explores the subjective meanings underlying midwives’ professional practice. A purposive sampling strategy was employed to recruit twelve midwives with at least three years of experience in high-risk maternity units. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed following the IPA analytic steps: initial noting, development of emergent themes, clustering of themes, and cross-case analysis. The analysis revealed five specific themes: (1) emotional duality in balancing fear and empathy, (2) heightened moral responsibility in life-threatening situations, (3) shared sisterhood as a source of collective resilience, (4) spiritual meaning as an inner coping mechanism, and (5) redefinition of care through professional self-reflection. These findings demonstrate that caregiving is not merely a technical act but an existential vocation, where midwives integrate empathy, resilience, and spirituality in response to the challenges of maternal care. The study highlights the need for structured emotional support systems, reflective practice spaces, and ethics-informed training to strengthen midwives’ capacity in high-risk settings. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the human experience in midwifery, emphasizing the importance of emotional awareness, reflective practice, and ethical support in improving maternal healthcare quality.
Copyright (c) 2026 Melyana Nurul Widyawati (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Lived Experience of Human–AI Interaction: Understanding Meaning, Trust, and Ethical Awareness among Computer Science Professionals
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of modern life, transforming how humans learn, work, and make decisions. Within the field of Computer Science, the growing human reliance on intelligent systems raises important questions about how individuals experience and interpret their interactions with AI technologies. Despite significant advances in technical performance, little is known about the lived experience of users how they make sense of trust, uncertainty, and agency when engaging with intelligent systems. This study adopts a phenomenological approach to explore the essence of human–AI interaction by examining participants’ subjective experiences with intelligent computational systems. Using an interpretative phenomenological framework, this research involved purposefully selected Computer Science professionals and undergraduate students who had a minimum of one year of active engagement with AI tools, resulting in a sample of [jumlah partisipan] participants. Data were collected through in-depth interviews lasting 45–60 minutes, and the analytic procedure followed the structured steps of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), including initial noting, emergent theme development, and cross-case thematic clustering to reveal recurring patterns of meaning. The results indicate that human–AI interaction is characterized by three interrelated experiential dimensions: cognitive adaptation, emotional negotiation, and ethical reflection. Participants described their encounters with AI as dynamic, reflexive processes that shape their understanding of autonomy, responsibility, and collaboration. These findings highlight that engagement with AI is not merely functional but profoundly human, encompassing moral, emotional, and existential dimensions. The study contributes to a more holistic and empathetic understanding of AI systems, offering insights for developing technologies that align with human values and ethical awareness.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ahmad Gunawan Herdifriansyah (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Elementary Teachers’ Lived Experiences in Implementing Project-Based Learning under the Merdeka Curriculum
Educational reform has increasingly emphasized the importance of teacher autonomy and reflective practice as essential components of effective learning environments. Within Indonesia’s Merdeka Curriculum, Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been introduced as a transformative approach aimed at fostering creativity, collaboration, and student-centered learning among elementary school teachers. However, limited research has examined how teachers experience and interpret this pedagogical shift, leaving a gap in understanding the lived meaning of teaching within curriculum innovation. This study addresses that gap by exploring the phenomenological essence of teachers’ experiences in implementing PBL under the Merdeka Curriculum. Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight elementary school teachers to uncover their conscious experiences, reflections, and meaning-making processes. Data were analyzed through a structured phenomenological procedure that included horizonalization, formulation of significant statements, clustering of meaning units, and synthesis of invariant themes following Moustakas’ analytic framework. The analysis revealed four essential themes: navigating initial uncertainty, rediscovering pedagogical meaning, negotiating institutional constraints, and achieving professional growth through reflection. These findings illustrate that teachers experience curriculum reform not merely as procedural change but as a deeply personal and transformative journey that redefines their professional identity. The study also demonstrates how reflective adaptation and emotional engagement enable teachers to internalize the philosophy of educational freedom and align it with classroom realities. The findings advance understanding of teacher experience in educational reform and underscore the importance of fostering reflective spaces that honor teachers’ lived realities. This study contributes to global educational discourse by framing curriculum implementation as both a pedagogical and existential process.
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Firman (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
An Interpretative Study of Auditor Independence and Ethics under Managerial Pressure
Auditor independence remains a central concern in accounting ethics, representing the foundation of public trust and professional integrity in financial reporting. Within this domain, growing attention has been given to how auditors experience ethical dilemmas and negotiate independence under managerial and organizational pressure. However, prior research has predominantly examined independence through regulatory or behavioral models, leaving the subjective meaning and moral experience of auditors largely unexplored. This study addresses that gap by asking: How do auditors experience, interpret, and sustain their independence in the face of managerial pressure? Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this research explores the lived experiences of twelve professional auditors working in both public and private audit settings. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on their professional experience and direct exposure to managerial pressure. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, and the analysis followed standard IPA procedures, including iterative coding, emergent theme development, and cross-case interpretation. Data were analyzed to reveal the moral, emotional, and contextual dimensions of independence. The findings indicate that independence is not a fixed regulatory state but a dynamic ethical experience, shaped by continuous moral reflection, emotional negotiation, and contextual adaptation. Auditors described independence as a process of balancing personal integrity with institutional expectations, often maintained through reflective resistance and ethical dialogue within their professional communities. These findings enrich the understanding of auditor independence as a lived phenomenon, extending beyond procedural compliance to encompass moral agency and identity formation. The study offers implications for ethical education, professional training, and organizational policy aimed at strengthening reflective ethical practice among auditors.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ebah Suaebah (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Qualitative Exploration of Managers’ Leadership Transformation within Organizational Change Initiatives in Public Institutions
Leadership and management research increasingly recognize the importance of understanding the human experience behind organizational transformation. Within this evolving field, phenomenological inquiry offers a means to uncover how managers construct meaning, embody ethics, and navigate emotional complexity during periods of change. However, despite numerous studies on leadership behavior and change management, little is known about how managers experience transformation as an existential and reflective process. This study addresses this gap by applying an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of managers leading organizational transformation. To ensure depth and idiographic focus consistent with IPA, the study employed purposive sampling involving twelve managers, selected for their direct and sustained involvement in organizational change initiatives. Using semi-structured interviews with twelve managers from various industries, the study analyzed narratives to identify key themes that capture the essence of leadership as a meaning-making process. The findings reveal that uncertainty functions as a catalyst for self-reflection, ethical decision-making serves as an anchor of stability, and reflective practice fosters resilience and authenticity. Leadership transformation thus emerges as both an emotional and moral journey, emphasizing consciousness and relational depth rather than functional performance. Through these insights, the study extends the theoretical understanding of leadership as a human-centered phenomenon and provides practical implications for developing reflective, ethical, and adaptive leaders. These findings contribute to a more holistic comprehension of leadership transformation and encourage future studies to examine cross-cultural and collective aspects of lived managerial experience.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dendi Zainuddin Hamidi (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Refining the Exploration of Mathematical Understanding through Reflective Experiences: A Phenomenological Study among Learners and Educators
Mathematics represents a universal language of reasoning that connects logic, abstraction, and human cognition. Within this domain, recent scholarship has turned toward understanding the lived experience of mathematical reasoning rather than viewing learning as a purely procedural or cognitive task. Despite this progress, limited attention has been given to how individuals consciously experience, interpret, and construct meaning during the process of mathematical understanding. This study addresses this gap by asking: How do individuals experience mathematical reasoning as a reflective and meaning-making phenomenon? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), this research explores the essence of mathematical experience through in-depth interviews with participants actively engaged in mathematical learning and instruction. To ensure methodological rigor, the IPA process followed established analytical steps, including (1) iterative close reading of transcripts, (2) initial noting to capture descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual comments, (3) development of emergent themes, (4) searching for connections across themes, and (5) cross-case analysis to identify shared experiential structures. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, transcribed, and analyzed thematically to identify the core meanings of participants’ experiences. The findings reveal that mathematical understanding evolves from procedural engagement to conceptual embodiment, characterized by phases of struggle, visualization, reflection, and insight. Participants described mathematics as a dialogical encounter between self and abstraction an act of conscious awareness rather than mechanical problem-solving. These results deepen the understanding of mathematics as a lived, interpretive process, demonstrating that cognition and consciousness co-construct meaning within abstract reasoning. The study contributes to theoretical, educational, and cultural discussions by positioning mathematics as a humanistic endeavor, offering new implications for reflective teaching and phenomenology-informed curriculum design.
Copyright (c) 2026 Derry Nugraha (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Digital Mediation and Ethical Communication among Public Information Officers in Indonesia
Public communication in digital governance represents a critical intersection between transparency, ethics, and human experience. Within this domain, digital mediation in public information dispute resolution has emerged as a new communicative phenomenon, requiring mediators to interpret meaning and maintain trust in technologically mediated contexts. However, previous studies have primarily emphasized procedural efficiency and institutional transparency, leaving unexplored how mediators experience and make sense of their communicative roles in the digital sphere. Accordingly, this study explicitly investigates two core research questions: (1) how mediators construct meaning in digital mediation processes, and (2) how ethical communication is negotiated within digitally mediated public dispute settings. This study addresses this gap by applying an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of mediators in the West Java Information Commission. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight participants and analyzed thematically to uncover essential patterns of meaning. The results reveal that digital mediation is experienced as a humanized process characterized by ethical reflexivity, virtual empathy, and interpretative negotiation of trust. Mediators described navigating emotional distance, balancing transparency with confidentiality, and redefining their professional identity within digital environments. These findings highlight that digital communication in governance is not merely technical but deeply experiential, emphasizing the relational and moral dimensions of public interaction. This study enriches our understanding of communication ethics and transparency in digital governance and provides a foundation for future research integrating phenomenological insights into policy and professional communication training.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ijang Faisal (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring Public Accountants’ Lived Moral Experience in Ethical Decision-Making within Corporate Audit Practice
Accounting as a professional discipline operates within complex ethical, social, and organizational contexts where professionals must balance integrity, responsibility, and client expectations. In recent years, research has begun to acknowledge that ethical behavior in accounting involves not only compliance with standards but also the lived moral experience of practitioners when facing ethical dilemmas. However, existing studies have primarily employed normative or quantitative approaches, leaving limited understanding of how accountants subjectively interpret and internalize moral conflict in real practice. This study addresses that gap by exploring the lived experiences of public accountants through a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to uncover how they make sense of moral tension within their professional world. To ensure methodological rigor, this study employed systematic semi-structured interviewing, iterative coding, and an audit trail throughout the analytic process. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twelve certified public accountants from large accounting firms, data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to identify shared meanings and themes. The analysis revealed four essential dimensions of moral experience: negotiating integrity under pressure, emotional weight of ethical dilemmas, influence of organizational culture, and reconciliation of professional ethics with personal values. These findings show that moral reasoning in accounting is not merely a rational process but an interpretive and emotional engagement shaped by professional context and self-reflection. The study contributes a more humanized understanding of ethics in accounting by emphasizing how moral awareness develops through interpretation rather than rule compliance. Its implications extend to ethics education, organizational culture design, and future research exploring moral agency across cultural contexts.
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Zaky (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Meaning of Hybrid Work Experiences: A Qualitative Inquiry among Employees in Multinational Organizations
Hybrid work has become a defining transformation in contemporary business administration, reshaping how employees experience connection, identity, and belonging in digitally mediated environments. Within organizational research, increasing attention has been given to understanding how individuals construct meaning and adapt to hybrid work, yet much of the existing literature remains dominated by functional and quantitative perspectives. However, little is known about how employees experience hybrid work as a lived phenomenon and how they interpret its emotional and existential dimensions. This study employs a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of employees in multinational corporations, revealing how they navigate the paradoxes of autonomy and surveillance, connection and isolation, and belonging and fragmentation. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with twelve participants and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), yielding three core themes: negotiating connection and isolation, redefining professional identity, and reconstructing organizational belonging. To strengthen methodological rigor, this study explicitly applied systematic IPA procedures—including iterative coding, reflexive memoing, and cross-case thematic convergence—to ensure analytic transparency and trustworthiness. The findings demonstrate that hybrid work transforms the meaning of “being at work” by prompting individuals to renegotiate visibility, authenticity, and relational trust within fluid digital-physical spaces. Practically, the results offer insights for organizations to design hybrid work policies that foster relational trust, support employee well-being, and encourage authentic engagement across digital and physical settings. This study is limited by its small, non-random sample and single-industry focus, which may constrain transferability; future research should expand across sectors, incorporate cross-cultural samples, or adopt longitudinal designs to capture evolving interpretations of hybrid work.
Copyright (c) 2026 Deni Muhammad Danial (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Experiencing Burnout in the Digital Workplace: Insights into Meaning, Identity, and Connection among Hybrid Employees
The rapid expansion of hybrid work systems has reshaped human experiences in organizational life, merging digital efficiency with evolving psychological and social challenges. Within this broader transformation, understanding how employees interpret and respond to burnout in digitally mediated environments has become an essential focus of Human Resource Management research. However, existing studies predominantly rely on quantitative frameworks that measure burnout through external indicators, offering limited insight into the lived meanings underlying the phenomenon. This study addresses that gap by exploring how hybrid employees make sense of burnout within technology-driven workplaces using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit twelve hybrid employees who met key criteria—regular engagement in digital–remote workflows and demonstrated experiences of prolonged work-related strain—ensuring depth and relevance of experiential accounts. Analytical procedures followed core IPA stages, including iterative reading, initial noting, emergent theme development, and cross-case pattern identification. The analysis revealed four interconnected themes: digital pressure and overload, blurred work-life boundaries, loss of meaning, and adaptive resilience. These findings demonstrate that burnout is experienced as an existential condition, where employees struggle to maintain authenticity, purpose, and connection amid constant digital connectivity. Unlike previous phenomenological burnout research that often centers on emotional exhaustion or job demands, this study uniquely highlights how digital infrastructures actively shape identity tension and meaning disruption in hybrid work settings. The study provides a deeper understanding of the human side of digital work, suggesting that addressing burnout requires more than policy intervention—it demands a human-centered redesign of digital ecosystems grounded in employees’ meaning-making processes. The results extend phenomenological inquiry within HRM and offer a conceptual foundation for future research on well-being and identity in post-digital work environments.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dana Budiman (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring the Meaning of Digital Transformation in Micro and Small Business Owners’ Entrepreneurial Experience
Digital transformation has become a defining force in entrepreneurship, reshaping how individuals conduct business and engage with technology. Within this evolving landscape, understanding the lived experience of entrepreneurs in adapting to digital environments remains a crucial but underexplored dimension of business studies. Although prior research has focused on behavioral and technological determinants of digital adoption, little is known about the subjective meanings and existential interpretations that entrepreneurs attach to this process. This study employs a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore how micro and small entrepreneurs experience, interpret, and give meaning to digital transformation in sustaining their business continuity. The methodological procedures involved three stages: (1) purposive selection of twelve micro and small business owners from diverse sectors, (2) in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted over two rounds to enhance narrative depth, and (3) a systematic six-step Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to identify emergent themes and interpret experiential meanings. Triangulation through reflective memos and peer debriefing was applied to enhance analytical rigor. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve entrepreneurs representing various industries and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The findings reveal four interrelated themes: identity redefinition, emotional adaptation, technology as a source of meaning-making, and community-based digital support. Entrepreneurs’ experiences indicate that digital adoption is not a technical act but a transformative journey that reconfigures their sense of self, resilience, and belonging. This interpretive insight deepens understanding of entrepreneurship as a human-centered practice, emphasizing meaning and adaptation over mere functional adoption. The study advances phenomenological inquiry in entrepreneurship by illustrating how digitalization is lived as a socio-cultural and emotional experience, thereby expanding theoretical and practical perspectives on sustainable digital entrepreneurship. However, the study is limited by its small sample size and context-specific focus, which may restrict transferability; future research could involve longitudinal designs or larger comparative samples to broaden interpretive insights.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sugih Prakoso (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Understanding English Lecturers’ Lived Experience in Integrating Sharia Values in Islamic Higher Education
English Language Education within Islamic higher education presents a unique intersection between global linguistic pedagogy and Sharia-based moral values. While existing studies have examined curriculum integration and value transmission, limited attention has been given to the lived experiences of educators who interpret and embody these principles in their teaching practice. The key question remains: how do English lecturers experience and construct the meaning of integrating Sharia values in their pedagogical roles? This study employs an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) to explore the inner processes through which educators internalize and enact Islamic ethical frameworks in their daily instruction. To ensure methodological rigor, the study followed core IPA analytic procedures, including close reading, initial noting, development of emergent themes, clustering of superordinate themes, and iterative interpretation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five purposively selected English lecturers (three males and two females) from Islamic universities in Indonesia, and analyzed thematically to uncover patterns of moral reflection, spiritual engagement, and professional identity formation. The findings reveal that teaching English is perceived as a spiritual vocation grounded in ikhlas (sincerity) and ethical awareness, reflecting a harmony between global communication and faith-based responsibility. These insights highlight how pedagogical spirituality operates as a transformative space where faith and professionalism converge to shape educators’ practices and moral consciousness. The study extends current understanding of faith-oriented education by emphasizing the importance of meaning-making in pedagogical experience and offers a foundation for future comparative and longitudinal research on religiously grounded language teaching.
Copyright (c) 2026 Michelle Putri Al-Fitroh (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Understanding Retail Investors’ Lived Experiences Amid Digital-Era Market Volatility
The rapid digitization of global financial systems has reshaped how individuals engage with economic activity, creating a new generation of retail investors who experience market dynamics through digital platforms. Within this transformation, understanding how investors emotionally and cognitively respond to market volatility has become increasingly important for behavioral and financial sciences. However, most existing studies rely on quantitative or predictive models that fail to capture the deeper, lived meanings of uncertainty and financial risk. This study addresses that gap by exploring how retail investors interpret and experience stock market volatility as part of their personal and social reality. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, this research investigates the subjective experiences of twelve active retail investors in digital trading environments. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically to reveal patterns of meaning, emotion, and reflection. The findings indicate that volatility is perceived not merely as financial instability but as an existential experience involving emotional struggle, cognitive sense-making, and social validation. Investors construct meaning through continuous negotiation between fear, control, and self-awareness, ultimately transforming anxiety into personal growth and resilience. These insights expand the boundaries of behavioral finance by integrating phenomenological understanding into economic research, emphasizing that financial decision-making is as much about meaning and identity as it is about rational calculation. In addition to advancing theoretical understanding, the findings offer practical implications for financial practitioners, including the need to design advisory strategies and investor-support tools that account for emotional responses, promote reflective decision-making, and enhance investors’ psychological resilience during periods of heightened market volatility. The study highlights the need for future interdisciplinary inquiry that bridges economics, psychology, and phenomenology to better understand human engagement with digital markets.
Copyright (c) 2026 Al Wardah (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring EFL Teachers’ Experiences with AI-Based Language Assessment in Digital Classrooms
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force in education, reshaping how teachers assess and interact with learners in digital learning environments. Within English Language Education, the integration of AI-based assessment tools has expanded rapidly, yet little is known about how educators experience and interpret their engagement with these systems on a personal and professional level. Despite technological progress, limited research has examined the subjective meanings and lived experiences of teachers who navigate AI-mediated assessment practices. This study addresses that gap by asking how EFL teachers construct meaning, negotiate identity, and maintain pedagogical authenticity while working with AI-driven evaluation systems. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the study explores teachers’ lived experiences to uncover the existential dimensions of “being-a-teacher” in AI-mediated classrooms. The study employed purposive sampling to recruit twelve EFL teachers with at least three years of experience using AI-based assessment tools, ensuring that participants possessed rich, relevant insights aligned with the study’s phenomenological aims. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve EFL teachers and analyzed using Van Manen’s reflective method. The findings revealed four interrelated themes trusting and questioning the machine, negotiating pedagogical identity, experiencing ethical and emotional tensions, and reconstructing authenticity in assessment practices. These themes illustrate that AI integration is not merely a technological transition but a human and ethical transformation affecting teachers’ professional identities and relationships with knowledge. The study contributes to a more human-centered understanding of AI-mediated pedagogy and provides insights for teacher education, institutional policy, and future research on human–machine collaboration in education.
Copyright (c) 2026 Syamsiah Depalina Siregar (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Interpreting the Experience of Midwives Adapting to Technology-Based Maternal Care
Midwifery, as both a clinical and humanistic discipline, emphasizes holistic, empathetic care that honors women’s physical and emotional experiences throughout pregnancy and childbirth. In recent years, digitalization in maternal healthcare has transformed the way midwives deliver care, requiring them to adapt their professional roles to technology-mediated environments. However, little is known about how midwives experience and interpret this digital transition in relation to their sense of empathy, identity, and professional authenticity. Here, this study employs an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of midwives who provide digital maternal care, revealing how they construct meaning and sustain relational depth in virtual interactions. Data were gathered through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten practicing midwives, selected purposively to ensure variation in digital-care experience and to capture rich, information-dense narratives, and analyzed to uncover key experiential themes. Analytic rigor was ensured through iterative coding, reflexive memoing, and peer debriefing, allowing for transparent theme development and enhanced credibility of interpretations. Findings show that midwives undergo a reflective transformation characterized by emotional negotiation, professional identity reconstruction, and the creation of a “digital-human equilibrium”—a balance between technological efficiency and empathetic engagement. This equilibrium reflects a deeper integration of human connection within digital practice, challenging assumptions that technology diminishes empathy. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of how digitalization reshapes professional presence and relational ethics in midwifery, offering theoretical and practical insights for healthcare systems seeking to harmonize innovation with compassionate care.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nurhabibah (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0