RESEARCH TOOLKIT
Narrative Study
Narrative inquiry is a way of understanding experience. It is a collaboration between researcher and participants over a period of time, in a place or series of places, and in social interaction. Further, the researcher provides a voice for the individual who is seldom heard in research (Lenfesty, Reichling, & Schultz, n.d.).
| Methodology Qualitative: Narrative Study |
| Design Auto-ethnography Narrative Life or Oral History Personal Accounts/Narratives (single event or episodic) |
| Sampling Non-probability Sampling: Purposeful/Criterion Sampling Data Collection Methods In depth, semi-structured interviews Personal Documents/Artifacts Participant observation Focus groups Participants’ journals |
| Instrumentation Participant and researcher collaborate throughout the research process to ensure the story told and the story reported aligns – interviews Data Analysis Development (through coding) of themes Analyzing data for the story/lived experience Chronological examination and patterns of meanings (events, processes et al) Qualitative Validity Checks Intensive, Long Term Involvement “Rich” Data Participant Validation/Member Checking (Maxwell, 2005) Ownership of the story/events Restorying/loss of participant’s voice Negative impact on participant (identification) |
| Caveats Leading Interview Questions Researcher Bias/Interpretation Engender participants’ full descriptions of experience, using all five senses, where applicable Researcher learns about the participant through field texts (interviews, informal observations, conversations, journals, letters, memory boxes), Resources (i.e., books, articles, video, seminal authors) Clandinin, D. J. (2013). Engaging in narrative inquiry. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, M. F. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Czarinawska, B. (2004) Narratives in social science research. London: Sage. Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. |