Chapter 16

1. Chapter 16 Research Narrative Designs Dr. William M. Bauer l

2. Key Ideas • Brief history of narrative research • Questions for determining narrative designs • Key characteristics of narrative designs • Strengths and weaknesses of narrative designs • Steps in conducting narrative research • Criteria for evaluating narrative research l

3. A Brief History of Narrative Research in Education • 1990 Clandinin and Connelly first overview of narrative research in education • Trends influencing the development of narrative research • increased emphasis on teacher reflection • emphasis placed on teacher knowledge • attempt to bring teachers’ voices to the forefront l

4. Questions for Determining Narrative Designs • Who writes or records the story? • How much of a life is recorded or presented? • Who provides the story? • Is a theoretical lens being used? • When can narrative forms be combined? l

5. Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs • Focuses on individual experiences • Reports a chronology of the experiences • use a time sequence of events • chronology sets narrative apart • Collects the individual stories told to the researcher or gathered through field texts • autobiographies • interviews • journals l

6. Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs • Restories the individual stories • researcher gathers stories and analyzes them for elements of the story • researcher rewrites the story to place it in a chronological sequence • restorying provides a causal link among ideas • information would include interaction, continuity, and situation l

7. Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs • Coding for themes • themes provide the complexity of the story • themes add depth to the insight about understanding an individual’s experiences • themes can be incorporated into the passage retelling the individual’s experience or as a separate section of the study l

8. Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs • Describes the context or setting for the individual stories • includes the people involved in the story • includes the physical setting • setting may be described before events or actions, or can be woven throughout the study • collaborates throughout the process of research with the individuals whose stories are being reported l

9. Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs • collaborates throughout the process of research with the individuals whose stories are being reported • participants are actively involved in the inquiry as it unfolds • relationships between research and participant are negotiated to minimize the potential gap between narrative told and narrative reported l

10. Strengths Collaboration Gives “voice” to educators Helps others understand topics Captures everyday familiar data Weaknesses Participants may “fake the data” Telling “horrific” experiences Ownership of the story Strengths and Weaknesses of Narrative Designs l

11. Steps in Conducting Narrative Research • Identify a phenomenon to explore that addresses an educational problem • Purposefully select an individual to learn about the phenomenon • Collect the story from the individual • Restory or retell the individual’s story l

12. Steps in Conducting Narrative Research • Collaborate with the participant storyteller • Write a story about the participant’s experiences • Validate the accuracy of the report l

13. Criteria for Evaluating Narrative Research • Does the researcher focus on individual experiences? • Is there a focus on a single individual or a few individuals? • Did the researcher collect the story of an individual’s experience? • Was there a restorying by the researcher of the participant’s story? l

14. Criteria for Evaluating Narrative Research • In the restorying, was the participant’s voice as well as the researcher’s voice heard? • Did the researcher identify themes that emerged from the story? • Did the story include information about place or setting of the individual? l

15. Criteria for Evaluating Narrative Research • Did the story have a temporal, chronological sequence including the past, present and future? • Is there evidence that the researcher collaborated with the participant? • Does the story adequately address the purpose and questions of the researcher? l

16. Applying What you Have Learned: Narrative Designs Review the article and look for the following: • The research problem and use of quantitative research • Use of the literature • The purpose statement and research hypothesis • Types and procedures of data collection • Types and procedures of data analysis and interpretation • The overall report structure l