As a graduate student at Alliant International University in San Francisco, I was blessed to have a professor who had a tremendous grasp of qualitative research. Dr. Mary Fambrough encouraged me to explore research from what was for me a fresh approach. It involved affirming the value of the experience that I brought to the research process. Prior to this, all of my research had involved supporting positions on the basis of "experts" in the field.

The idea that Mary sold me on was taking the instrument of the research seriously, that being me. I conducted a series of interviews with a speech pathologist who was kind enough to open up to me about her work and experience. The research process involved me interpreting the speech pathologist's self-perception through my perception of her experience.

What made the process so intruiging was that I was challenged to use my life skills, including my academic skills, to uncover--through an ethnological methodology--the recurring words, expressions, and themes that spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally undergirded her experience. To my surprise, and in confirmation of everything that Mary had said, the interviews began to open up and the data began to get richer and richer.

It got so rich that on one memorable occasion my interviewee made a catharic connection that involved her love for her now descesed father whose influence had been critical in life as a speech pathologist. 

The content of this unveiling can be read in the above title, The Bolus.

Here are some exerpts.


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