Researcher’s own Experience and Mobility difficulties

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Practical Theology’s Relevance to the study

The focus in this study was not so much on the scientific value or ‘the truth’ of faith systems. The focus was rather on the effects and meanings of these knowledges, truths and beliefs on people in real life. In other words this research focused on the effects of discourse in participants’ lives as suggested by Phillips and Hardy (2002) and discussed on page 55.
A question that was important in this research regarded what we needed to hear about the stories of the participants. Such a question became relevant in this field of enquiry; on the understanding, that practical theology is concerned with the correlation between God and man and how it gets acted out. This question also resonated with Firet (1974) cited by Heyns & Pieterse (1990:6), where he asked, ‘What do we need to hear about the “encounter between God and humanity”?’ This made me curious about the role this encounter has to play in the resilient stories people had to tell around Mobility Difficulty.

PASTORAL CARE

This research report was further written within the specialization field of pastoral care. Pastoral care presupposes a faith conviction as the starting point and a faith community as one of the contexts from which to do theology or from where counselling is offered.
The pastoral caregiver can be viewed as a representative of the Christian story and its tradition (Gerkin 1991:11). In a pastoral therapeutic dialogue, theological traditions can function as a participant in a dialogue’ (Botha quoted by Grobbelaar 2001:175). This means that the story of God becomes a conversational partner in the bigger story of faith. Matching the third aim (1.6)the ‘story of God’ can be used as conversational partner in how participants use their spiritual beliefs to establish meaning in mobility difficulties, and in their responses to the challenges of a life with Mobility Difficulties.
With the growth of the social sciences, practical theologians have been encouraged by some of the insights offered by these fields of study; the work of pastoral care and counselling was therefore influenced by psychology and social work. Literature in the social sciences focused on matters of diagnosing and ways of providing psychologically informed care, it did not focus on issues of the theological reflection. As time moved on specialization in pastoral care fields became established.
Gerkin, (1991) in his narrative hermeneutic approach to pastoral care argues that experiences are made meaningful through the stories that we tell of our experiences. These stories can also include a relationship with God’s story as it is acted out through metaphors found in the Bible.

PILOT STUDY

In order to clarify and develop a research question around Mobility Difficulties the researcher conducted an informal pilot study in which two people have been ‘interviewed’. A lady from the researcher’s church cell group who walked with difficulty was asked to participate in a conversation regarding her mobility difficulty. She agreed. At the conclusion of the conversation her husband overheard me asking whether she knew anyone else whom the researcher could talk to who has similar mobility difficulties. He mentioned a man at the cripple care association where he does voluntary work who, he thought, might also be willing to participate. The man was contacted and agreed to a conversation.
The lady was an elderly woman with visible difficulties in her walking actions due to a viral infection (similar to the polio virus), which she contracted during her first pregnancy 42 years ago. The man working at the cripple care association was thirty years old. He also had visible and enduring difficulties with walking, but his condition is due to a fall on his head from the first storey of an apartment building when he was one and a half years old. He suffers from cerebral palsy.
The purpose of the pilot study was to clarify a research question. ‘Rough sketches’ of the research curiosities needed clarity. The influence of mobility difficulties and their effect on body image and identity, experiences of medical personnel, preferred care from significant others and issues of spirituality regarding disability, needed exploring. It was interesting that although those were the areas that were tentatively enquired about, both participants spontaneously offered information on the subjects without being asked directly.

READ Two systemic perspectives on psychosocial processes in public participation

CHAPTER 1
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH
1.1.1 Researcher’s own Experience and Mobility difficulties
1.1.2 Why Mobility Difficulties?
1.1.3 Describing Mobility Difficulties, Resilience, and Disease and Illness
1.1.3.1 Mobility Difficulties
1.1.3.2 Resilience
1.1.3.3 Disease and Illness .
1.1.4 The Medical Model and views of Illness .
1.1.5 A Framework for Listening to Participant’s Stories.
1.1.5.1 The Restitution Story.
1.1.5.2 The Chaos Story
1.1.5.3 The Quest Story
1.2 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY
1.2.1 Practical Theology’s Relevance to the study
1.3 PASTORAL CARE
1.4 PILOT STUDY.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION
1.6 RESEARCH AIMS.
1.7 RESEARCH PROCESS
1.7.1 Selection of Participants.
1.7.2 Data Collection Methods and Technique
1.7.3 Data Analysis and Discourse Analysis .
1.8 RESEARCH APPROACH.
1.8.1 Qualitative Research
1.8.2 Action Research
1.8.3 Ethical Considerations.
1.8.4 Limitations of the Study
1.9 RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH TO MYSELF AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY
1.10 CHAPTER OUTLINE
CHAPTER 2
2.1 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH.
2.1.1 From Quantitative to Qualitative.
2.1.2 Using Participants’ own Stories.
2.2 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY
2.3 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY AND PASTORAL CARE
2.4 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A NARRATIVE-PASTORAL APPROACH
2.5 POSTMODERN IDEA
2.6 ACTION RESEARCH
2.7 DISCOURSE AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 3.
3.1 INTRODUCING THE PARTICIPANTS
3.2 RESEARCH THEMES
3.3 USING THE WRITTEN WORD IN LETTERS TO PARTICIPANTS
3.4 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN ACTION.
3.5 THE LETTERS
3.6 CLOSING REMARKS
CHAPTER 4
4.1 THE CHALLENGES OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
4.2 ZOOMING IN ON PARTICIPANTS’ WORDS
4.3 REFLECTIONS ON THE ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 5
5.1 REFLECTIONS ON ANALYSED DISCOURSES .
5.2 THE RESEARCH PROCESS AND APPROACH IN RETROSPECT.
5.3 RESEARCH BENEFITS FOR RESEARCHER AND PARTICIPANTS
5.4 EVENTS THAT REALISED DIFFERENTLY, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE TOPICS
5.5 A LAST WORD
REFERENCES