Q1. What is narrative inquiry?

Narrative inquiry is the interdisciplinary study of the activities involved in generating and analyzing stories of life experiences (e.g., life histories, narrative interviews, journals, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, biographies) and reporting that kind of research. (Schwandt, 2007, p. 204)

A1. Narrative inquiry, or narrative research, is a research methodology that is growing in acceptance and practice in such disciplines as nursing, medicine, and law, and especially organizational studies, therapy in health fields, social work, counselling, and psychotherapy, and teaching (Clandinin, 2007, pp. xi-xii). Like other methodologies used by social science researchers, narrative inquiry “inquires” into--or asks questions about and looks for deeper understanding of--particular aspects of life experience. For example, some of the graduate students whose work informs this FAQ explore such diverse experiences as an elementary school teacher’s ongoing efforts to modify the spitting behaviour of an autistic student (Borden, 2009), and a graduate student’s investigation of how to change her process of online writing discussion posts so that this writing facilitates learning and discovery (Porteous Jones, 2009).

One way that narrative inquiry is unique in its study of life experience is the emphasis that it places on narrative or story (see answer 7). For instance, narrative researchers base their inquiries on different theoretical and philosophical views of how people live and think narratively (see Readings). Moreover, what “narrative researchers hold in common is the study of stories or narratives or descriptions of a series of events” (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007, p. 4). We would add to this the possibility of studying a constellation of images. There are diverse ways that researchers study these stories or sets of images (e.g., see Pinnegar & Daynes, p. 5; Chase, 2005).

Suggested reading

By the experts

Chase, S. E. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 651-679). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. W. (2008). Narrative research designs. In Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 511-550). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Pinnegar, S. & Daynes, J. (2007). Locating narrative inquiry historically. In Clandinin, D. J. (Ed.) Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 1-34). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Q2. What are some key characteristics of narrative inquiry?

A2.There are many forms of narrative inquiry (see Chase, 2005), and students are sometimes bewildered as to how to recognize it. Below, I propose some (arguably) common characteristics of narrative inquiry that may be a useful starting point for discussion.

1. Flexibility. Narrative inquiry--like the life experience that it investigates--is a complex and ever-changing. Moreover, narrative researchers often emphasize finding direction for their research in their participant’s stories. As a result, these researchers may find that their research questions and purposes change as the inquiry progresses (cf. Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, pp. 57, 60, 97, 125-126, 138, 145-146).
2. Experiences of an individual. Narrative inquiry often focuses on the experiences of one or a few participants rather than those of a larger group. One of its goals is to give voice to those whose stories have been previously unheard in educational research (Creswell, 2008; cf. Chase, 2005).
3. Life stories. Like much of qualitative research, narrative inquiry explores life experience. However, it describes and analyzes these experiences using the language of “story.” For instance, the field texts or data that narrative researchers gather may include, or be called, “stories” of life experience and include plots and characters and so forth. Moreover, narrative researchers often analyze and interpret the stories that they gather and write by drawing from philosophical and theoretical ideas about the ways in which we think through story, and tell about our lives using culturally-available narrative models and even live our lives according to these models (see Readings).
4. Like other forms of qualitative research, narrative inquiry often involves coding field texts (e.g., interview transcripts, letters from the participant to the researcher) for themes or categories.
5. The narrative researcher may use the aforementioned themes or categories to restory (or retell or develop a metastory) from the field texts. This new story may be structured around a chronology of events describing the individual’s past, present, and future experiences and situated within a specific setting or context (Creswell, 2008) (see answers 11 and 12).
6. Narrative inquiry emphasizes relationships or collaboration between the researcher and others (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007). The researcher may check the emergent stories and negotiate their meanings with participants (Creswell, 2008), and share work-in-progress with other narrative researchers (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000).
7. Many narrative researchers emphasize the importance of learning from their participants. As a result, their research reports may foreground, or find direction or structure through, their participants’ stories, rather than through a conventional literature review or theoretical framework (see answer 11).
8. Narrative inquiry is a literary form of qualitative research (Creswell, 2008) that places a special emphasis on writing. For example, many narrative researchers seek to persuade their readers by writing their participants’ stories in an engaging, literary manner that places the readers in the participant’s shoes (see answer 6). Literary writing is, however, not just about seeking to persuade. Many narrative inquiries demonstrate that literary conventions such as metaphor, image, and character address the complexity and vastness of human experience in ways unavailable in academic prose. Author: Natasha G. Wiebe, 2009.

The italicized characteristics #2-7 above were derived from Creswell, 2008, p. 517.

Suggested reading

From the experts

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative approaches to inquiry. In Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed., pp. 53-84). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Creswell distinguishes narrative inquiry from phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study.]

Creswell, J. W. (2008). “Narrative research designs.” Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 511-550). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Pinnegar, S. & Daynes, J. (2007). Locating narrative inquiry historically. In Clandinin, D. J. (Ed.) Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. (pp. 1-34). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage. [Pinnegar and Daynes identify four themes in the movement toward narrative inquiry.]

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Q3. What are some contexts or settings of narrative inquiry?

A3. Narrative researchers often “describe in detail the setting or context in which the participant experiences the central phenomenon” (Creswell, 2008, p. 522). The setting may include the participant’s workplace, home, social organization, or school. It is the place where “a story physically occurs” (Creswell).

One popular setting or site for narrative inquiries in the field of education is, of course, the school. Amani Hamdan Alghamdi, (2006; Hamdan, 2009) investigates Arab Muslim women’s experiences in Canadian educational institutions. John Guiney Yallop (2007) explores his own experiences of being an out gay educator in the Canadian elementary school system. Many narrative researchers also depart from school settings. A second setting for Guiney Yallop’s stories of being “OUT of place” is that of the Roman Catholic community. The rural Ontario community of North Buxton is the setting for Claudine Bonner’s (in progress) inquiry into the untold stories of American slaves who resettled in Canada. A future global apocalyptic landscape, as well as the current political and ecological one, form the dual settings for Pauline Morris’ (2009) inquiry into how Western senior secondary and university students relate to Japanese anime. Author: Natasha G. Wiebe, 2009

Suggested reading

From the experts

Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, F.M. (2000). What do narrative inquirers do? In Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research (pp. 48-62). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. [In this chapter, Clandinin and Connelly discuss their notion of the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space.]

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Q6. Do you have to be an artist (novelist or poet) in order to be a narrative inquirer?

A6. Narrative inquiry emphasizes relationships or collaboration among the researcher and others (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007). One of my graduate students, Robyn Turgeon (2009), approached the investigation of her own story (and strengths) as an aboriginal woman through her fiction, and in particular, through the gaps or weaknesses her fiction revealed to her. Another one of my students, John Guiney Yallop (2007), wrote storied poems to re-present his experiences of being an out gay educator. But you don’t have to be an artist (novelist or poet), in order to be a narrative inquirer. You may, however, become increasingly aware of the importance of not just the words you use, but how you use them, as well as their effects (see Johncox, Wiebe & Hoogland, 2009). To greater or lesser degrees, narrative researchers treat the data, the document, as an aesthetic artifact, or (as I prefer) a performance. This is premised on a belief that stories – whether written or oral – speak volumes. It is not only what people say, but also how they say it, that informs the discussion. Form as well as content. Narrative inquiry uses stories and poetry because metaphoric language (the language of what if and let’s pretend) gives it the greatest chance at making various and often unpredictable emotional, imaginative and sensory impressions upon the reader (Hoogland & Wiebe, 2009, p. 9). Author: Cornelia Hoogland, 2009.

Suggested reading

From the experts

Schwandt, T. A. (2007). "Literary turn (in social science)” and “Writing strategies” [Dictionary entries]. The Sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry (3rd ed., pp. 179-80, 322). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

For a fuller discussion of the artistic or metaphoric nature of literary (metaphoric) language, see the following two citations.

Hoogland, C. (2003). The land inside Coyote: Reconceptualizing human relationships to place through drama. In D. Booth & K. Gallagher (Eds.), How theatre educates: Convergences & counterpoints (pp. 211-228). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto.

Hoogland, C. (2005). An aesthetics of language. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 2(2) pp. 43-59. Available at http://www.csse.ca/CACS/JCACS/index-2.html

From graduate students

Johncox, D., Wiebe, N. G., & Hoogland, C. (2009). Kusserow re-written: A dialogue about the research potential of storied poems. In C. Hoogland & N. Wiebe (Eds.). Narrative inquiry in education [Research website]. Available at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html

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Q7. What is a narrative? How is it different from, or the same as, a story?

A7. When reading the literature from the field of narrative inquiry, you will often encounter the term “narrative.” To follow are four ways that writers—including the graduate students who wrote this FAQ--use the term (derived from Schwandt, 2007, p. 201).

Narrative may refer to:

1. any spoken or written presentation. For example, Chase calls her research handbook chapter on narrative inquiry a “narrative” (2005, p. 669). This is the broadest use of the term.
2. particular content organized in story form. Story, in turn, refers to a kind of writing that describes a sequence of actions or events with a plot (a beginning, middle, and end), and perhaps a main character who experiences a conflict that comes to some sort of resolution.
3. a particular kind of data. Interviews, for example, often elicit “narrative data” or the interviewee’s story. Narrative data may take such forms as: a) a personal experience story that relates the interviewee to some significant encounter, event, or personal experience (e.g., related to schooling, work, marriage, divorce, childbirth, illness, trauma, or participation in a war or social movement [Chase, 2005, p. 652]), or b) a personal history or reconstruction of an entire life, from birth to the present (Chase).
4. a discourse or form of research reporting that is distinct from the more conventional argumentative forms conventionally used in research reports. For instance, “narrative” research reports often incorporate literary conventions such as plots and character, purposefully descriptive writing that “shows rather than tells,” metaphor, dialogue, genres such as scripts and poetry, and so forth, in order to draw the reader in (e.g., see Hoogland, 2005, and Ellis’ novel-textbook on autoethnography, 2004). One goal is to persuade the readers or “jolt” them out of their complacency (Chase 2005, p. 671) regarding the experience in question by recreating or performing that experience in compelling ways that places the reader in the shoes of the research participant.

Students often confuse narrative and narrative inquiry. Narrative inquiry is a methodological approach that investigates narrative and/or employs narrative to present a view of phenomena. A narrative, in the context of narrative inquiry, is often a story about a significant event or experience in an individual’s life. Author: Natasha G. Wiebe, 2009.

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Q8. Why do narratives matter in educational research?

A8. One sunny afternoon, in our Faculty of Education courtyard, our Narrative Discussion Group discussed this question. What follows is based on that conversation.

Narratives create a sense of community. “By conducting narrative studies, writes John Creswell, “educational researchers establish a close bond with the participants. This may help reduce a commonly held perception by practitioners in the field that research is distinct from practice and has little direct application. Additionally, for participants in a study, sharing their stories may make them feel that their stories are important and that they are heard” (2008, p. 511). Moreover, when a story is well told, the listener or reader may feel a sense of connection to the teller--“That’s my story, too. I am not alone” (Richardson, 1997, pp. 33)--and may even feel compelled to tell his or her own story in return.

Narratives engage. When well told, a story can place the reader in the shoes of the narrator; it can bring the reader into the moment of the experience being described. A well-written narrative “shows” rather than “tells” (Ellis, 2004, pp. 365, 369); it gives reader a sense of what the narrator is feeling and, by extension, to care about the narrator and about what happens to him or her. Using story to encourage readers to empathize with one’s research participants may have the result of “jolting” these readers out of any complacency regarding the experience in question (Chase, 2005, p. 671), changing their points of view, and provoking them to ask new questions (Barone & Eisner, 2006, p. 102) or take other action (Richardson, 2000, p. 937).

Narratives are holistic. Life experience is complex and contradictory, and narrative is well suited to expressing that complexity and contradiction (cf. Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, pp. 181-182; Ellis, 2004, pp. 366-367, 370; Creswell, 2007, pp. 56, 2008, p. 522; Webster & Mertova, 2007, pp. 3, 13). “Sometimes there is no way to objectively quantify or describe what we see or feel about our research,” observes graduate student Darrell Johncox. Elements of narrative, such as “Metaphor and dramatic action provide a means of expressing the emotion, feelings and reactions that will otherwise be lost in translation” (2009, p. 12).

Narratives can speak a universal language. Stories can cross generational and cultural boundaries (see answer 16); they can offer a common point of entry into an experience. “Telling stories is natural part of life, and individuals all have stories about their experiences to tell others. In this way, narrative research captures an everyday, normal form of data that is familiar to individuals” (Creswell, 2008, p. 511). The “story of a life is also more than the life, the contours and meaning allegorically extending to others, others seeing themselves, knowing themselves through another’s life story, re-visioning their own, arriving where they started and knowing ‘the place for the first time’” (Richardson, 1997, p. 6). Author: Natasha G. Wiebe, 2009

The italicized phrases are derived from my conversation with Cornelia Hoogland and Pauline Morris, June 2007.

Suggested reading

From an expert

Richardson, L. (1997). Narrative knowing and sociological telling. In Fields of play: Constructing an academic life (pp. 26-35). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

From graduate students

Johncox, D., Wiebe, N. G., & Hoogland, C. (2009). Kusserow re-written: A dialogue about the research potential of storied poems. In C. Hoogland & N. Wiebe (Eds.). Narrative inquiry in education [Research website]. Available at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html

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Q11. What does the narrative research process look like?

A11. This is a particularly challenging question to answer because, as Clandinin and Connelly observe, each narrative inquiry “has its own rhythms and sequences, and each narrative researcher needs to work them out for her or his own inquiry” (2000, p. 97). That being said, it’s helpful to find a starting point from which you can find your own way and destination; a flexible framework to which you can refer and which you can adapt as you gain experience in conducting a narrative inquiry. A fellow student wrote that Creswell’s comparison of narrative inquiry to qualitative research and to the research process in general (2008, Table 16.1, p. 516) “pulled together” what she had read and discussed during her narrative inquiry course (Porteous Jones, 2009, p. 6). I found Creswell’s summary to be useful, too, and so I have adapted it for your use below.

Table 1. The research process, the characteristics of qualitative research, and the characteristics of narrative inquiry.

Phases of the research process	Characteristics of qualitative research	Characteristics of narrative inquiry
Identify a research problem	A qualitative problem requires exploration and understanding.	Narrative researchers seek to understand and re-present experiences through the stories that individual(s) live and tell.
Review the literature	The scholarly literature plays a minor role. Qualitative researchers use the literature to justify their research problems.	Narrative researchers foreground the participant’s story and background the scholarly literature. For example, they may find direction or underlying structure for their research reports through the participant’s story rather than through a conventional literature review or theoretical framework. The scholarly literature may offer guidance for how to interpret the participant’s stories (i.e., find deeper meaning or new understandings through them).
Develop a purpose statement and research questions	The qualitative purpose statement and research questions are broad and general. The qualitative purpose statement and research questions seek participants’ experiences.	Narrative researchers seek to explore the meaning of the individual’s experiences as told through a story or stories.
Collect qualitative data	Qualitative researchers collect data following protocols developed during their studies. Qualitative data collection involves gathering text or image data. It also involves studying a small number of individuals or sites.	Narrative researchers collect field texts that document the individual’s story in his or her own words (e.g., interview transcripts, letters, journal entries).
Analyze and interpret qualitative data	Qualitative data analysis consists of text analysis. Qualitative data analysis consists describing information and of developing themes. Qualitative interpretations situate findings within larger meanings.	Narrative researchers analyze the participant’s stories by retelling or “restorying” them into a framework that makes sense (e.g., chronology, plot). This often involves identifying themes or categories of information within the participant’s stories (e.g., time, place, plot, scene). Researchers may then rewrite the participant’s stories to place them within a chronological sequence (beginning, middle, end) and/or a plot that incorporates a main character who experiences a conflict or struggle that comes to some sort of resolution.

Table derived from Creswell, 2008; and 2007, p. 56.
Author: Natasha G. Wiebe, 2009.

Suggested reading

From the experts

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative approaches to inquiry. In Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed., pp. 53-84). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Creswell, J. W. (2008). Narrative research designs. Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 511-550). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

From a graduate student

Mara, D. (2009). Interviewing texts: Fiction writing as method of inquiry. Assignment submitted as part of the course requirements for 9576 Narrative Inquiry, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Winter 2009. Available at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html [As part of this mini-narrative inquiry, Mara wrote two fictional interviews which explore various characteristics and processes of narrative inquiry.]

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Q12. What are some approaches to narrative analysis?

A12. Narrative analysis refers to the multiple ways that researchers describe or retell the narratives/stories that they collect or create during their narrative inquiries. Some general methods or approaches to narrative analysis include the following.

• Narrative representation. Researchers collect data (through interview transcripts, field notes, autobiographical writing, and so) and then unify them by re-presenting them in the form or shape of a narrative/story. The created story may be seen as a narrative representation, explanation, or performance of the phenomenon under study. In other words, the creation of the story itself may be considered an act of narrative analysis (cf. Clandinin, 2007, p. xv).
• Thinking with a story. Researchers may consider a story that they have collected or composed to be “already complete” rather than “trying to go beyond it” to make connections to other stories, literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and so on. “Thinking with a story means to experience that story as affecting your life and to find in that experience a truth about your life” (Ellis, 2004, p. 197, derived from Frank, 1995). In a dialogue with one of her graduate students (Hoogland & Wiebe, 2009), Cornelia Hoogland models one way to think with a story: she uses Little Red Riding Hood as a metaphor for narrative inquiry. (See King, 2003, for other examples.)
• Thematic analyses. Some narrative researchers treat stories as data and use analysis to arrive at themes that illuminate the content and hold within or across stories (Ellis, 2004, p. 196).
• Structural analyses. Other narrative researchers examine how a story is organized in terms of such things as genre, movement of the plot line, storytelling strategies, word choice, point of view and so on (Schwandt, 2007, p. 202; Ellis, 2004, pp. 196-197).
• Functional analyses. Narrative researchers may also examine what a story is “doing” (e.g., is it a cautionary tale, a success story?) (Schwandt, 2007, p. 202). Pauline Morris (2009) uses functional analysis in her thesis to describe how stories in anime, which take place in futuristic dystopian worlds, actually describe and reflect our current circumstances. These stories reveal our present problematic relationships with technology and act as cautionary tales, warning viewers of the dangers of continuing on the present path.

A narrative researcher might combine some of these approaches in a research study. For example, in a narrative inquiry on how writing can be a research tool for narrative researchers (Wiebe, 2009), I pieced together a novelist’s comments made during several interviews into a new story that describes 1) the inspirations for the novel in question, 2) how she wrote it, and 3) the new insights generated for the novelist by the finished, published writing. This was my first level of data analysis; I see it as an example of narrative representation or creating a single narrative that unifies the interview data. I then looked for connections between the created story and my own experience of writing the research study; that is, I looked for parallels between how the novelist said she wrote her novel and my own writing experience. This was my second level of data analysis, and I see it as an example of thematic analysis. Finally, I used the connections or themes that I found in our shared writing experiences to think more deeply about how writing can be a process of discovery for the narrative researcher. I interwove my reflections with some references to the methodological literature; that is, I discussed some relevant ways that writing is represented in several textbooks on narrative inquiry and how my study complements or challenges these representations. This was how I “interpreted” my findings or framed my new understandings about the way that writing can be part of the inquiry in narrative inquiry. Author: Natasha G. Wiebe, 2009.

Suggested reading

By the experts

Ellis, C. (2004). Analysis in storytelling. In The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography (pp. 194-201). Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Chase, S. E. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 651-679). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. W. (2008). Narrative research designs. In Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 511-550). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

By a graduate student

Wiebe, N. (2009). “Miriam Toews’ experience of writing A Complicated Kindness: Implications for how writing can be inquiry in narrative inquiry” [draft doctoral thesis chapter]. Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London. Available from nwiebe@uwo.ca.

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Q16. How do I explore narratives from a culture other than my own?

A16. My response to this question relates to writing my master’s thesis Apocalypse in anime: Shifting boundaries of human- technology interface (Morris, 2009), which investigates fictional Japanese narratives in anime (Japanese animation). I offer a brief overview here, as my experience may be useful if your research includes looking at narratives from other cultures. My thesis examines how anime narratives portray character experience of apocalypse – particularly those experiences related to human abuses of technology – in a manner that is pedagogically germane to Canadian students and students from Western cultures in general at the senior secondary and university levels. (Furthermore, anime is popular globally, and the stories I examine have profound global resonance.)

From the outset, it was necessary to provide a clear rationale for my decision to examine Japanese narratives rather than ones that originate in Western culture. It was necessary to demonstrate why popular culture stories from Japan could teach our students something about themselves, particularly about how they relate to technology and apocalypse. I argued that anime narratives from Japan are both culturally unique (in educationally significant ways) and globally relevant. (I found it was also imperative to take into consideration that Japan is a heavily Westernized and globalized protean culture, and that sharing cultural artifacts and practices certainly flows both ways.)

My examination made it necessary to explore many areas of traditional and non-traditional Japanese culture (although in a limited regard, as the focus of my thesis was analysis of the anime narratives). These included cultural narratives (norms and practices), history, animation history, mythologies, spirituality, and Japanese relationships to technology (particularly to artificial intelligence and life forms). Although I am not of Japanese heritage, I conducted my research as responsibly as possible in concert with numerous anime critics and scholars, as well as Japanese cultural theorists. I also benefitted from ongoing consultation with my committee member from Japan and the anime and manga research circle to which I belong. These scholarly associations enabled me to make some inferences. For example, I suggest that Japan has a striking association with apocalyptic experience for at least two principal reasons: a) Japan is the only nation to have experienced the atomic bomb (resulting in animators treating apocalyptic narratives in a penetrating manner). b) Japan has been a notable pioneer in the realm of technology for many decades (including research in artificial intelligence and robotics).

Additionally, in response to why stories from Japan provide unique pedagogical opportunities, I discovered, for instance, that Japanese storytelling in anime differs from popular Hollywood film narratives in particularly notable ways. For example, anime encourages critical thinking and “active spectatorship” through such defining characteristics as open-endings, deliberate ambiguity, and non-traditional complex characters, as well as a tendency to openly deal with pain and disaster in a direct manner. These generalized differences from Hollywood film (especially animation), and more, were defined in my thesis proposal and underpinned my argument that narratives from Japan are relevant to a global audience and to students. I gained additional insights through continued critical analysis of the anime I chose.

However, equally important, I discovered other perspectives on apocalypse that differ from those I have acquired from my own culture (even if I was unable to access some of the finer Japanese cultural implications). Through narrative analysis, some restorying of Japanese narratives, and scholarly research, my thesis emerged -- hopefully as a worthwhile resource for teachers and students. Further, as Kelly Chandler-Olcott (2008) suggests, it can be said that through attaining understanding of another culture and a new set of perspectives one also learns more about one’s own culture through “inevitable cross-cultural comparisons” (p. 68). I suggest that as educators and researchers share their understanding of stories from other cultures, including with students, a conversation between cultures will continue to surface in fresh and relevant ways, and new narratives will emerge. Author: Pauline Morris, 2009.

Suggested reading

From an expert

Andrews, M. (2007). Exploring cross-cultural boundaries. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.). 2007). Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 489-511). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

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Q17. How can I include myself in my narrative research? Why?

A17. Narrative researchers include themselves in their research in several ways. One way that the narrative researchers are “present” in their work is true of all kinds of research, whether researchers acknowledge it or not: the researcher’s personal background and world view affects their “relationship, identifications, and exchanges” (Luttrell, 2000, p. 500) with their participants. Moreover, there are particular decisions that the researcher makes about how to interpret their data and represent it to readers, decisions that the same researcher might make differently at different times in his or her scholarly career, or decisions that another researcher working with the same data might make differently. It is important for the narrative researchers to be aware of and explain their positions and decision making to readers, which will help them to interpret or evaluate the research process and findings (Chase, 2005, p. 659; Luttrell) and decide whether they will accept what the researchers have to say.

Some other ways that narrative researchers include themselves into their research—ways that depart from the conventions of traditional “scientific” research—include the following:

1. Narrative researchers tend to break from traditional academic research writing by using first person or “I” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 122; Creswell, 2008, p. 525) in part to emphasize the role that they have had in shaping the research results or constructing the story their research tells (Chase, 2005, p. 657).
2. Narrative researchers may focus an investigation on their own personal experiences or stories in order to look at how these reflect, and also resist, larger social or cultural patterns or interpretations. They may use the ‘self’ as a means to reflect on their research of “others,” and they may use other people’s experiences to reflect critically on their own (cf. Ellis, 2004, p. 48).The term of choice for studying one’s own lived experience within particular social and cultural contexts has become autoethnography (p. 40). Narrative inquiry is one methodological approach for doing autoethnography (p. 45; cf. Schwandt, 2007, p. 204; Chase, 2005, p. 660).
3. Narrative researchers may tell participants of their own personal experiences with the research topic in order to build rapport and open communication and come to a mutual, deeper understanding of the issues or events in question (cf. Ellis, 2004, p. 65). Or, they may use their personal experience as a lens for coming to a better understanding of the participants’ similar, yet different, experiences (e.g., Wiebe, 2008).
4. 4. In their final research reporting, narrative researchers may interweave their own personal experiences along with the stories that they tell of their participant’s experiences (Creswell, 2007, p. 57). This blending can take different forms, including
   • starting the research report with a personal story to “hook” the readers and/or to help them understand the researcher’s particular perspective or connection to the research topic.
   • showing how they studied their own lived experiences along with those of their other participants, and why.
   • reflecting on the research activities that they undertook during the larger study (e.g., Luttrell, 2000) or on the changes that they experienced as a result of conducting the research as part of their responsibility to make their influence on the research and their decision making transparent for their readers. Authors: Natasha G. Wiebe with Jaclyn Bryson, 2009.
   The three bulleted points directly above were inspired by Ellis, 2004, pp. 46-47.

Suggested Reading

By an expert

Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

By a graduate student

Flinn, J. A. (2009). Researching the personal [thesis chapter]. In J. A. Flinn, The educational impacts of tuberous sclerosis complex (pp. 4-13). (Master's thesis, University of Western Ontario, London).

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Q18. When writing my own personal narratives, how can I maintain an objectivity that will not confound my findings? How do I reassure my readers of this?

A18. The principle of objectivity is traditionally associated with more positivistic paradigms, founded on the belief that scientific rigour can yield unbiased and universal truths that are directly correlated to observed events (Holloway & Jefferson, 2000, p. 78). Pinnegar and Daynes (2007) suggest that “the assumption is made that what is being studied in quantitative research has the properties of a ‘thing,’” with an existence that is separate from and not connected to the researcher (p. 29). However, even in the realm of quantitative research, many questions exist about whether it is possible for all data to be measured or analyzed in such a way as to attain “pure objectivity” (Hoepfl, 1997). And of course language itself, as a human symbol system, is necessarily from a particular, human, point of view. Language “represents” a reality; it is not that reality. In referring to the work of Dewey, Conle (2000) suggests that “both science and art have aesthetic elements…and that neither are all subjective nor all objective” (p. 191). Some may argue that narrative inquiry falls somewhere between, or encompasses both, science and art.

As a form of qualitative analysis, narrative inquiry often positions subjects as active participants in their research who are not “bound, static, atemporal, and decontextualized” (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007, p. 11). The stories told by participants represent the empirical data, invaluable to “understand[ing] how people create meanings out of events in their lives” (Chase, 2005, p. 651). Thus, the “data” acquired through narrative field texts are inevitably “imbued” with interpretation (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 93). Narrative inquiry is open to the possibility that certain experiences may be unique and are associated with real people who have individual voices and agency; it is acknowledged that these experiences can be interpreted, reinterpreted and/or assume various different meanings for different individuals, depending on their life circumstances, relationships, values, beliefs, social and cultural contexts, etc. Both narrative researchers and participants are viewed as being in a collaborative relationship with one another with the understanding that “both parties will learn and change in the encounter” (Pinnegar & Daynes, p. 9).

In this light, Connelly and Clandinin (1990) suggest that “it is important not to squeeze the language of narrative criteria into a language created for other forms of research [e.g. objectivity, validity, generalizability]” (p. 7). Even though the “data collection process” in narrative studies often reflect a reciprocal and caring researcher/researched relationship, some believe that it is still possible, particularly during the data analysis and/or restorying process, to preserve a certain degree of distance “between…researchers and the subjects they are researching” (Pinnegar & Daynes, p. 11). Narrative researchers can also help to safeguard the integrity of their studies by clearly identifying and telling stories of their own backgrounds, intentions and purposes throughout the process (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 93). In the end, given that the language and criteria of narrative inquiry is still considered to be in the developmental stages, and given that narrative researchers may collect data through various different formats (e.g., interviews, journals, letters, school documents), Connelly and Clandinin (1990) suggest that “each inquirer must search for, and defend, the criteria that best apply to his or her work” (p. 7).

In conclusion, it may be moot to speak of maintaining objectivity within narrative inquiry. It is perhaps more relevant to talk about the integrity and ethics of the researcher, such as the ways in which he or she maintains emotional integrity with, and where relevant, among from the participants. Moreover, it may be more useful to speak of researcher reflexivity rather than objectivity. Luttrell, for instance, suggests that researcher reflexivity includes describing 1) how your own background affects your relationship, identifications, and exchanges with your participants, as well as 2) the decisions that you make about analyzing and representing data during the research process, and what is lost, and what is gained as a result (2000, p. 500). Author: Dan Jervis, 2009.

Suggested reading

From the experts

Luttrell, W. (2000). “Good enough” methods for ethnographic research. Harvard Educational Review 70(4), 499-523.

Pinnegar, S. & Daynes, J. (2007). Locating narrative inquiry historically. In Clandinin, D. J. (Ed.) Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. (pp. 1-34). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Works Cited

* = Written by graduate students at the Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London.

*Alghamdi, A. K. H. (2006). Quilted narratives of Arab Muslim women's tapestry: Intersecting educational experiences and gender perceptions. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario, 2006). Dissertation Abstracts International. (AAT NR30684)

Barone, T., & Eisner, E. (2006). Arts-based educational research. In J. Green, G. Camilli, & P. Elimore (Eds.). Complementary methods in education research (pp. 95-109). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Pub.

*Bonner, C. (in progress). Re-creating settlement stories: North Buxton, Ontario, 1873-1914. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario, London).

*Borden, L. (2009). Using poetry to help understand one child’s behaviours. Assignment submitted as part of the course requirements for 9576 Narrative Inquiry, University of Western Ontario, London, Winter 2009.

Chandler-Olcott, K. (2008). Seeing the world through a stranger’s eyes: Exploring the potential of anime in literacy classrooms. In N. Frey & D. Fisher (Eds.), Teaching visual literacy: using comic books, graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills (pp. 61-89). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Chase, S. E. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd ed., pp. 651-679). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Clandinin, D. J. (Ed.). (2007). Preface. In Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. ix-xvii). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, F.M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Conle, C. (2002). Thesis as Narrative or "What Is the Inquiry in Narrative Inquiry?" Curriculum Inquiry, 30(2), 189-214.

Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative approaches to inquiry. In J. W. Creswell, Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed., pp. 53-84). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Creswell, J. W. (2008). “Analyzing and interpreting qualitative data” and “Narrative research designs.” Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 243-270; 511-550). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

*Flinn, J. A. (2009). Researching the personal [thesis chapter]. In J. A. Flinn, The educational impacts of tuberous sclerosis complex (pp. 4-13). (Master's thesis, University of Western Ontario, London).

*Guiney Yallop, J. J. (2008). OUT of place: A poetic journey through the emotional landscape of a gay person's identities within/without communities. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario, 2008). Dissertation Abstracts International. (AAT NR39350)

Hamdan, A. (2009). Muslim women speak: A tapestry of lives and dreams. Women’s Press.

Heopfl, M.C. (1997). Choosing qualitative research: A primer for technology education researchers. Journal of Technology Education 9(1).

Hollway, W., & Jefferson, T. (2002). Doing qualitative research differently: Free association, narrative and the interview method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Hoogland, C. (2003). The land inside Coyote: Reconceptualizing human relationships to place through drama. In D. Booth & K. Gallagher (Eds.), How theatre educates: Convergences & counterpoints (pp. 211-228). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto.

Hoogland, C. (2005). An aesthetics of language. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 2(2) pp. 43-59. Available at http://www.csse.ca/CACS/JCACS/index-2.html

*Hoogland, C., & Wiebe, N. (2009). “This small matter of paying attention”: A dialogue about listening to the body in narrative inquiry. In C. Hoogland & N. Wiebe (Eds.). Narrative inquiry in education [Research website]. Available at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html

*Johncox, D. (2009). The “re-visioning” of my online narrative: A story by Darrell Johncox. Assignment submitted as part of the course requirements for 9576 Narrative Inquiry, University of Western Ontario, London, Winter 2009.

*Johncox, D., Wiebe, N. G., & Hoogland, C. (2009). Kusserow re-written: A dialogue about the research potential of storied poems. In C. Hoogland & N. Wiebe (Eds.). Narrative inquiry in education [Research website]. Available at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html.

King, T. (2003). “You’ll never believe what happened” is always a great way to start. In T. King, The truth about stories: A native narrative (pp. 1-29). Toronto, ON: House of Anansi Press

Luttrell, W. (2000). “Good enough” methods for ethnographic research. Harvard Educational Review 70(4), 499-523.

*Mara, D. (2009). Interviewing texts: Fiction writing as method of inquiry. Assignment submitted as part of the course requirements for 9576 Narrative Inquiry, University of Western Ontario, London, Winter 2009. Available at http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html

*Morris, P. (2009). Apocalypse in anime: Shifting boundaries of human- technology interface. (Master’s thesis, University of Western Ontario, London).

Pinnegar, S. & Daynes, J. (2007). My writing as inquiry. Locating narrative inquiry historically. In Clandinin, D. J. (Ed.) Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 1-34). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.

*Porteous Jones, K. (2009). Assignment submitted as part of the course requirements for 9576 Narrative Inquiry, University of Western Ontario, London, Winter 2009.

Richardson, L. (1997). Narrative knowing and sociological telling. In Fields of play: Constructing an academic life (pp. 26-35). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Richardson, L. (2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. Denzin & Y. Guba (Eds.). Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923-948). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Schwandt, T. A. (2007). The Sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

*Turgeon, R. (2009). “She carries the earth on her back”: Scholar, teacher, mother, Anishinaabekwe (Master’s thesis, University of Western Ontario, London).

Webster, L. & Mertova, P. (2007). Using narrative inquiry as a research method: An introduction to using critical event narrative analysis in research on learning and teaching. London, ENG: Routledge.

*Wiebe, N. (2008). Mennocostal musings: Poetic inquiry and performance in educational research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Special Issue on Performative Research. Available at http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/413/898

*Wiebe, N. (2009). Miriam Toews’ experience of writing A Complicated Kindness: Implications for how writing can be inquiry in narrative inquiry [draft doctoral thesis chapter]. Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London. Available from nwiebe@uwo.ca

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Questions for this FAQ were constructed, with permission, from two data sources at the University of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Education: 1) field notes documenting the conversations of the pilot Narrative Discussion Group (2007); and 2) the online discussions and assignments of consenting students enrolled in the Master’s of Education course 9576 Narrative Inquiry (Winters 2008 and 2009). These data sources helped us to construct the answers in this FAQ, as well as to identify the suggested readings on this site. We gratefully acknowledge the students who participated in this project as well as the support of a Faculty of Education Internal Grant. Project supervisor: Dr. Cornelia Hoogland.

To cite an answer from this FAQ (APA): <Insert author’s last name, initials.> (2009). <Insert the question that the author answers.> In C. Hoogland & N. Wiebe (Eds.). Narrative inquiry in education [Research website]. Retrieved <insert month, day, year> from http://www.edu.uwo.ca/Narrative_Inquiry/faq.html