Before entering the field, it is critical that the researcher have written a full
disclosure of his or her own experiences relative to the research topic (Marshall &
Rossman, 2006). This stage of inquiry is referred to as epoche or bracketing (Creswell,
2007). This is a process, described by Creswell (2007), "in which investigators set aside
their experiences, as much as possible, to take a fresh perspective toward the
phenomenon under examination" (pp. 59-60). I completed this process before gathering
the data so as not to be influenced by the experience of others. In this way, I bracketed off
as much as possible of my experiences from those of the interviewees.