A phenomenographic approach to research into learning can be appropriate for exploring the approaches geography students adopt in their learning. This resources article provides a brief description of phenomenography. The essence of the approach is that it takes a relational qualitative perspective that aims to describe key aspects of variation in the collective experience of phenomena, rather than focusing on the individual experience. Phenomenonographic research is a major undertaking but is valuable in providing insights into how students understand the content they are learning and can be used to evaluate students' variation in all forms of experience within a learning and teaching context. (Contains 1 figure.)