Dan’s Narrative Account

I told my wife I was not interested in attending the baby shower her colleagues were throwing for her at work. And yet there I was, in the busy staff room, as countless individuals asked to hold our five-month-old daughter. As it was a potluck, a variety of different foods covered the table. The staff room was packed, and people ate awkwardly with plastic utensils and paper plates in hands or laps. Being the only male in the room, I noticed when another male entered. This was Dan.

As there was nowhere to sit, Dan stood beside me and we struck up a conversation. Dan told me he had a daughter about a year older than mine and that he worked as a physical therapist at the hospital. When he asked what I did, I told him that I was a doctoral student and then about my work in teacher attrition. I explained my particular interest in physical education teachers who had left teaching within their first five years of Kindergarten to Grade 12 teaching. As it turned out Dan had taught physical education for a few years before beginning his physical therapy degree. Later, by coincidence, Dan’s name came up in a conversation between another researcher on our teacher attrition project and a contact in a junior high school. I decided to approach Dan about being involved in the study.