Life histories of people who stutter : on becoming someone.

Abstract

This study explores participants' experiences of stuttering in their lifeworlds over

time through the lens of self-identity formations. The critical questions raised are:

How do participants form their self-identities in their lifeworlds over time in

relation to stuttering? In the context of their self-identity formations, how do they

negotiate stuttering? A narrative life history methodology was used with intention

to access personal, temporal and social dimensions of experience. Seven adult

participants, two female and five male participants, with histories of living with

stuttering since childhood, were invited to share their stories. Their personal

experiences are embedded in diverse lifeworlds in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,

a context making a sociopolitical transition from apartheid to democracy. The

data was produced through retrospective accounts of their experiences via a

series of dialogical interviews. Issues of empathy, power, and positioning and

quality in the research process are problematised. The data was analysed at

three levels. The first level of analysis entailed a narrative analysis of interview

data, represented as seven individual research stories. The second level of

analysis is a cross-case analysis using the seven research stories for the

purposes of theorising. The outcomes of the third level of analysis are

abstractions and explanatory concepts which respond to the critical questions in

a general way.

The genesis of two self-identity trajectories, self-identity as DisOther and self-identity

as Able/Potential are traced over time. The biographical, contextual and

social forces shaping self-identity formations and participants' actions in

negotiating stuttering are illuminated. The self-identity trajectories are unique in

the context of each biography. However, the relative prominence of self-identity

formation as DisOther across cases in school years was evident. In contrast,

self-identity as Able/Potential became prominent, during adulthood, for some

participants. The experience is rendered as complex and fluid through a set of

abstractions and explanatory concepts. These concepts foreground the changing

and multiple relationships between self-identity formations, the influence of social

forces shaping self-identity, the impact critical catalysts shaping self-identity

formations, and strategic manipulation of self-identity in negotiating stuttering. In

particular, the strategies to negotiate stuttering successfully are examined. The

limitations of the study and potential application of this theoretical offering in the

research, educational and clinical domains of Speech-Language Pathology are

discussed.