Phenomenology of illness: An approach in the education of children with chronic illness

Children with chronic illnesses have special educational needs, certain aspects of which are overlooked under the existing objective naturalistic and normative philosophical approaches. This study aims to propose the phenomenology of illness as an alternative approach to improve the education of children with chronic illness. The present study is based on two methodological approaches, phenomenological and inferential. In this way, first, the educational challenges of children with chronic diseases are phenomenologically described according to their views concerning themselves, their existence, and others. Then by extracting the phenomenological themes of intentionality, temporality, and embodiment, the phenomenology of the diseases is inferred as a way to better understand the special education of these children. By recognizing the affected child as the embodied subject, the phenomenology of illness reconstructs the meaning of the illness and introduces a perspective under which the chronic illness becomes a suitable platform for individuals' development and prosperity.