9. Phenomenography and variation theory

The epistemological assumptions outlined in Learning and Awareness also led to a theory of learning, called ‘variation theory’. This has been of great value to educational research and development, and has led to its own strand of applied research and practice based on pedagogical applications of variation theory in the classroom and in teacher education and development. Whilst variation theory research is often not strictly phenomenographic, they may be usefully applied together and complement each other in numerous ways. This chapter describes how the variation theory tradition developed during the 2000s, and outlines its ongoing relationship with phenomenography.