What a book read-a-thon revealed about how researchers actually find their method — and the mentor question that decided mine

Last weekend, I sat in a read-a-thon for a qualitative colleague's book (The Qual African by Mpho), reviewing a chapter that asked every contributor the same question: how did you become a qualitative researcher?

One by one, the answers came back strikingly similar. Almost none of us chose qualitative research on purpose. We arrived at it by accident — and every accident had a story behind it.

Here is mine.

During my MSc at NM-AIST, in collaboration with the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) in Bagamoyo, my supervisor, Prof. Dickson Lweitoijera (a chief research scientist at IHI) asked me a seemingly simple question: "What's your plan after completing the programme? And what's your research focus?"

Truth be told, I had no clear answer. I hadn't really thought about it. So, not wanting to sound clueless I answered quickly: "I think I will stick with research specifically quantitative research."

Back then, there was an unspoken hierarchy among junior researchers and fellow masters' colleagues. Quantitative work was treated like a badge of genius something that made you feel superior.

Qualitative research was quietly dismissed as "soft," as if talking to people carried less weight than running experiments or writing code.

I had absorbed that hierarchy without ever questioning it, even though I had a strong mathematics background from Advanced Level, and statistics had long been my show-off subject.

"You are very good at connecting with people and ideas. Why not focus on qualitative research?"

My supervisor must have sensed I was still searching behind my vague answer. So, he asked me that — and it stuck. I hesitated, and did what most quantitative-leaning researchers do when qualitative comes up: I made excuses. It's hard. It's exhausting. It's just umbea umbea endless talk, not real research.

He laughed and told me to stop making excuses there is no such thing. He would know: exposed to both traditions himself, he had clearly heard the qual-vs-quant debate call it a quiet professional conspiracy many times before.

But I had actually been "anointed" as a qualitative researcher even before Prof. Lweitoijera. It started with my Advanced Qualitative Research lecturer, Dr. Sally Mtenga (a social research scientist at IHI), during one of our practical sessions on moderating focus group discussions (FGDs): "...You will make a good qualitative researcher."

I laughed in my heart, I knew it wasn't going to happen. The same happened during our hands-on NVivo training with Ms. Jitahada Baraka (also a social research scientist at IHI), as I was actively engaged throughout the sessions.

So, after a lot of thought about it, honestly, it made sense: nearly every project I had genuinely enjoyed already leaned qualitative.

Once I stopped resisting that, everything changed. I found my lane, went all in, and learned everything I could about qualitative research design and methodology. The focus that once felt like a concession became the clearest decision of my career — and it opened more doors than I ever expected.

That is the accident so many of us share: we didn't choose qualitative research because it looked easier. We chose it once someone gave us permission to stop pretending otherwise.

Sitting in that read-a-thon, listening to contributor after contributor tell some version of this same story, one thing became clear: our accidents were never really accidental. They were the moment someone a mentor, a professor, a stranger in a workshop — finally named the thing we were already good at, before we had the confidence to name it ourselves.

That's how it all actually began. The rest is history.

However, I would be ungrateful if I didn't mention the CREME Research Mentorship Program led by Dr. Catherine Kahabuka and the team. It was through this program that I deepened my understanding of qualitative research over seven consecutive months.

I learned so much, and I am grateful that I stayed the course until the very end. To top it all off, I was recognized as the Best Mentee in Tanzania and ranked second overall among mentees from the five participating countries.

To the mentors who see us clearly before we see ourselves: thank you. This career is, in part, yours.