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From: Harsha
Date: 10/8/01
Time: 3:23:09 AM
Remote Name: 196.21.162.250
Dear Judy
thank you for your question/comment
as a research tool lifehistory interviews have a rigorous approach to interviewing which perhaps most of all challenges the interviewer to be very good listener - It is really about "giving ear" to the person listening than giving voice to the person speaking
the "good listening" aspect has to be problematised in the research context especially in a discipline like ours where the person is speaking with disfluency/stuttering .A very special learning experience/challenge for me was to listen past the disfluency
By virtue of my own training that expects of me to focus on the symptomatic dimensions of stuttering, I initially found that I was listening/counting and trying to make sense of the speech behaviour-tuning in to disfluencies - In order to listen past that or negotiate meaning within the framework of disfluency- I found that listening to the content and actively participating in meaning-making helped a great deal. In effect I had to become a co-constructor of knowledge and this can only be done if you really listen actively
life history also requires good listening in that it is not intended to be a strict administration of an interview schedule- i.e. answer these questions - tell me what I want to know . Rather it is framed as "I would really like to listen to what you have to say" the climate of trust, power mediation etc are important aspects to consider as this is a communication process.
There are some references i have included on life history methodology (Hatch &Wiesnieski) which has more on interviews and listening
You have been interested in stories as well( I have questions i would like to pose to you in the context of your paper which i will send to you) However, I would really like to get your comment about using stories/narratives for the purposes of research.
thank you harsha