Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

158interpretation and understanding of the institutional life being described, alongwith the effect of institutional practice on those living in this setting.Furthermore, these concepts fundamentally affect and determine the appropriatenature of the contextualised pastoral response.5.3.2 Inductive Data Analysis and TheologisingAn inductive data form of analysis begins with a specific thought,question or experience, that is, a specific piece of information, and throughthorough and careful analysis builds overarching theories or models thatencompass the multiple realities that comprise the context in question. 420From a pastoral perspective the initial thought, question or experience isexpressed in metaphorical language as opposed to more conceptualised linguisticforms. 421 It is the metaphorical image that describes life and relationships in thecontext in question, along with the pastoral practitioner’s role and relationships. Itis from this starting point, and with the discipline afforded by conceptuallinguistic forms, that a body of knowledge begins to emerge. The methodologicalprocess that will eventually lead to careful analysis, interpretation, understandingand pastoral action can be applied. It is from careful reflection upon the keymetaphorical image pertinent to this extended reflection, that is, the Slave, that apastoral theology, cognisant of the articulated and understood oppression andliberation, can emerge.From a pastoral theological perspective Doehring describes inductivetheology as beginning with the particular experience and moving then to askbroad-based questions about where God is and who God is in the pastoralcontext. 422 This pastoral practitioner seeks to move thoughts and experiencesgenerated from description of the lived, communal context and the personal,pastoral narrative to pastorally-based conclusions and models of pastoral care thatoffer a measure of liberation to the people with intellectual disability living in theinstitutional setting. 423420Rodwell, Social Work, 58-59.421 Doehring, "Developing Models," 27.422 ibid., 28.423 A helpful and relevant example of this inductive form of data collection, analysis andpastoral theologising is to be found in,O'Connor, Thomas, Kathleen O'Neill, Victoria Rao, Elizabeth Meakes, Tracy Van de Laar,Sherry McKinnon, Mirella van der Zyl, and Jan Roadhouse. "Horse of a Different Color:Ethnography of Faith and Disability." The Journal of Pastoral Care 53, no. 3 (1999): 269-84.