Narrative+Research

Narrative Research


 * __Definition/History__**


 * Narrative research is a distinctive form of qualitative research in that data consists of stories told in a sequence of events from the life of a single individual (Creswell, 2009)**

In Latin, the noun //narrario// means a narrative or a story, and the verb //narrare// to tell or narrate A narrative is a story that tells a sequence of events that is significant for the narrator or her or his audience. To repeat, when narratives are looked on within the framework of sociocultural theory, we have to remember the interlinking between the individual and her or his context. As individuals are telling their stories, they are not isolated and independent of their context.

Narrative research is describing the human experience. A narrative provides links, connections and meaning to human activity. The stories told bring together the diverse aspects of the human experience. Narrative as data acquired through research may utilize storytelling, life history, in depth interview, biography or focus groups. It usually recounts one person's experience.

In recent times there has been what has been described as a narrative and auto/biographical turn within the social sciences. This ‘turn’ is associated with post-modernism and the concomitant lack of faith in grand, master or meta narratives. For researchers this has opened up the possibility of explicitly framing and realizing their research in terms of it both being, and using, narrative.


 * __Methodology__**

Narrative inquiry is the process of gathering information for the purpose of research through storytelling. The researcher then writes a narrative of the experience. Connelly and Clandinin (1990) note that, "Humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and collectively, lead storied lives. Thus, the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world." In other words, people's lives consist of stories.

Field notes, interviews, journals, letters, autobiographies, and orally told stories are all methods of narrative inquiry. For example, a researcher might do a study on the way in which fourth grade girls define their social roles in school. A researcher might look at such things as notes and journal entries, and might also interview the girls and spend time observing them. After this, the researcher would then construct her own narrative of the study, using such conventions as scene and plot. As Connelly and Clandinin also note, “Research is a collaborative document, a mutually constructed story out of the lives of both researcher and participant."

Narrative inquiry is appropriate to many social science fields. The entire field of study is often used in disciplines such as literary theory, history, anthropology, drama, art, film, theology, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, education, politics, nutrition, medicine, and even aspects of evolutionary biological science.

According to Creswell (2007), the procedures for narrative study are:

1. Determine if the research problem or question best fits narrative research. Narrative research is best for capturing the detailed stories or life experiences of a single life or the lives of a small number of individuals.

2. Select one or more individuals who have stories or life experiences to tell, and spend considerable time with them gathering their stories through multiples types of information. Clandinin and Connelly (2000) refer to the stories as “field texts.” Research participants may record their stories in a journal or diary, or the researcher might observe the individuals and record field notes.

3. Analyze the participants’ stories, and then “restory” them into a framework that makes sense. Restorying is the process of reorganizing the stories into some general type of framework. This framework may consist of gathering stories, analyzing them for key elements of the story (e.g., time, place, plot, and scene), and then rewriting the stories to place them within a chronological sequence. Often when individuals tell their stories, they do not present them in a chronological sequence. During the process of restorying, the researcher provides a cause link among ideas.

4. Collaborate with participants by actively involving them in the research. As researchers collect stories, they negotiate relationships, smooth transitions, and provide ways to be useful to the participants. In narrative research, a key theme has been the turn toward the relationship between the researcher and the researched in which both parties will learn and change in the encounter. In this process, the parties negotiate the meaning of the stories, adding a validation check to the analysis.

Validation standards for the narrative are also a bit more nuanced and even abstract than those for other forms of inquiry. Meanings are best given by and through those who lived the experiences. Because of this, Creswell (2007) writes that "preoccupation with method, validation, reliability, generizability and theoretical relevance must be set aside in favor of a concern for meaning and interpretation" (p. 214).


 * __Why Narratives studies__**

An attempt to increase understanding of central issues related to teaching and learning through the telling and retelling of participants’ stories


 * __Types of Narrative Studies__**

· Autobiographies

· Biographies

· Life Writing

· Personal Accounts

· Personal Narratives

· Narrative Interviews

· Personal Documents

· Documents of Life

· Life Stories and Histories

· Ethno histories

· Ethno biographies

· Auto ethnographies

· Ethno psychologies

· Person-centered Ethnographies

· Popular Memories


 * __Characteristics__**

This methodology is how to investigate and collect the data that attempts to explain the lives of individuals, the collection of individuals’ stories of their experiences, and meaning of those experiences and then understand them.

· Focuses on the experiences of individuals

· Concerned with the chronology of the individual’s experiences

· Focuses on the construction of life stories based on data collected via interviews

· Uses re-storying

· Incorporates context and place in the story

· Is collaborative (researcher & participants construct the narrative (together))

· Always involves responding to the question, “And then what happened?”


 * __Experts__**

John Dewey:

F. Michael Connelly

Catherine Riessman

D. Jean Cladinin

Amia Lieblich

Lenard Webster

M. Connelly


 * __References/Resources__**

Casey, Kathleen. (1995). The New Narrative Research, //Review of Research in Education//, //21//(1), 211-253.

Chase, S. E. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), //The Sage handbook of qualitative research// (pp. 651-679). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Clandinin, D.J. and M. Connelly (1999) //Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research// San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Creswell, J. W. (2007). //Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches//. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Colorado State University []

Hendry, P. (2010). Narrative as inquiry. //Journal of Educational Research, 103//(2), 72-80.

Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). //Narrative research: Readings, analysis, and interpretation//. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, M. A. (1994). //Qualitative data analysis//. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Neuman, W. (2003). //Social research methods// (5th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Riessman, C. (1993) //Narrative analysis// London: Sage.

Five Approaches to Qualitative Research