example of narrative research in education

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Narrative Research in Education

Introduction, general overviews.

Narrative Research in Kindergarten to Grade 12
Focus on Postsecondary Students
Focus on Postsecondary Teachers
Health Sciences
Physical and Leisure/Recreational Studies
Psychology and Counseling
Life Study Narrative Research
Youth Study Narrative Research
Narrative Research with People Who Are Labeled Vulnerable

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English as an International Language for Academic Publishing
Girls' Education in the Developing World
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Narrative Research in Education by D. Jean Clandinin , Vera Caine , Margot Jackson LAST REVIEWED: 05 May 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 27 March 2019 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0175

While the study of narratology has a long history, narrative research became a methodology for the study of phenomena in the social sciences in the 1980s. Since that time there has been what some have called a narrative revolution, which is reflected in the rapid uptake in the use of narrative methodology across disciplines. There are diverse definitions of narrative research with different ontological and epistemological commitments, which range from semiotic studies and discourse analysis of spoken and written text to analysis of textual structures of speech and performances of texts as in narrative analysis to the relational studies of narrative inquiry where a focus on lived and told experience is central.

Here we attend to narrative research in education rather than only focusing on narrative research embedded in institutions of schooling. Doing this acknowledges that life’s experiences may be educational, whether they occur inside or outside of, and perhaps at times in spite of, the institutions of schooling. For us education occurs in community, peer group, and family, as well as in vast geographic places and with diverse people. This way of thinking speaks to our understanding of education as reflective of intergenerational linkages and inclusive of anticipated future events, places, and contexts. Education attends carefully to the larger social, cultural, linguistic, familial, and institutional narratives in which schooling also occurs. While debate is ongoing about the ways to engage in narrative research, researchers do agree that narrative research is the study of experience. For narrative inquirers, experience is the stories that people live and tell over time, in different places, and in diverse and unfolding relationships. Informed by Dewey 1938 , Connelly and Clandinin 1990 notes that experience is understood as narrative phenomena. Bruner 1987 furthers our understanding by differentiating between narrative and paradigmatic knowing and, in this, points out fundamental differences from other research methodologies and ways to understand life. Polkinghorne 1988 adds a more nuanced understanding of analytic processes and emphasizes the importance of looking at the complexity and wholeness of a life. Since that time, scholarly works, such as Rosiek 2013 and Clandinin 2007 , have articulated the strong link to pragmatist traditions, and they have situated narrative traditions more clearly in epistemological and ontological ways. Concepts of relational ethics were first made central in Clandinin and Connelly 2000 , and they were developed further in Clandinin, et al. 2018 , while Morris 2002 has differentiated thinking with from about stories as a central aspect.

Bruner, J. 1987. Life as narrative. Social Research 54.1: 11–32.

An important early article that introduced narrative knowing as distinct from paradigmatic knowing. While some of these ideas were present in Bruner’s Acts of Meaning (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), the naming of narrative knowing marked an important shift.

Clandinin, D. J., ed. 2007. Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

First overview of research methods and concepts within narrative inquiry. Important text for social science researchers interested in narrative research and distinctions within narrative research. Introduces concepts of borderlands between narrative inquiry and post-positivist, neo-Marxist, and post-structuralist research. Translated into Korean and Chinese.

Clandinin, D. J., V. Caine, and S. Lessard. 2018. Relational ethics in narrative inquiry . London: Routledge.

DOI: 10.4324/9781315268798

Outlines an ethical stance appropriate to narrative inquiry. Building on Bergum and Dosseter’s understanding on relational ethics in clinical practice, the authors use six illustrative studies to show relational ethics as lived in narrative inquiry. Includes narrative inquiry that directly engages relational tensions between persons often seen as vulnerable and broader social forces. Afterword by pragmatist scholar J. Rosiek.

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

First text to outline narrative inquiry as methodology and phenomenon. Widely used to introduce researchers to narrative inquiry. Illustrates narrative inquiry processes as moves from field to field texts to research texts. Introduces relational ethics as well as the importance of narrative beginnings. Translated into Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

Connelly, F. M., and D. J. Clandinin. 1990. Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher 19.5: 2–14.

DOI: 10.3102/0013189X019005002

First article that linked narrative to inquiry in an explicit way. Published in a leading research journal, the article signaled narrative inquiry as a research methodology as well as a way to understand experience as a narrative phenomenon.

Dewey, J. 1938. Experience and education . New York: Collier.

Outlines experiential view of experience as life. Often cited as philosophical grounding for narrative inquiry. Introduces Dewey’s criteria of experience as continuity and interaction in situations that are linked to the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space of temporality, sociality, and place.

Morris, D. B. 2002. Narrative, ethics, and pain: Thinking with stories. In Stories matter: The role of narrative in medical ethics . Edited by Rita Charon and Martha Montello, 196–218. New York: Routledge.

Introduces distinction between thinking with stories as distinct from thinking about stories.

Polkinghorne, D. E. 1988. Narrative knowing and the human sciences . New York: State Univ. of New York Press.

Brought concept of narrative knowing into developing understandings of narrative research in social sciences. Differentiated narrative analysis from analysis of narratives: The former focused more on contextual and holistic realms in narrative research while the latter focused more on the analysis of the texts themselves.

Rosiek, J. 2013. Pragmatism and post-qualitative studies. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26.6: 692–705.

DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2013.788758

Significant in this article is the return to pragmatist philosophy and the thinking about practice in relation to narrative. Pragmatist practice, which shapes narrative inquiry research, is related to political action, imagination, and future possibilities.

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Article Contents

I introduction, ii philosophy as methodology: analytic philosophy and dialectical analysis, iii teachers’ practical knowledge and the justification of narrative research, iv what is wrong with the way narrative researchers warrant their knowledge claims, v our entitlement to accept the findings of narrative research.

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On the Epistemology of Narrative Research in Education

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Galit Caduri, On the Epistemology of Narrative Research in Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education , Volume 47, Issue 1, February 2013, Pages 37–52, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12011

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The purpose of this article is to explore the epistemological foundations of narrative research in education. In particular, I seek to explain how one can obtain knowledge, given its origin in teachers’ subjective experiences. The problem with rhetorical and aesthetic criteria that narrative researchers use to warrant their knowledge claims is not that they don’t meet a correspondence criterion of truth as post-positivists contend, but rather that they fail to connect teachers’ ethical views with their practice . Since narrative research is aimed at understanding teachers’ actions and not at seeking some kind of mechanism in teachers’ behaviour, the link between past experiences and present teaching practice is not causal but teleological.

I suggest that although the knowledge claims of narrative researchers may not be justified (because they don’t meet the criteria of truth as correspondence theory), we might nonetheless be intellectually entitled to accept them. Entitlement is an epistemic right or warrant that constitutes knowledge as justification, but uses different reasons—teleological not causal explanations. I offer three criteria to establish entitlement to accept narrative researchers’ findings: (1) the meeting of rhetorical standards such as plausibility, adequacy, and persuasion; (2) the inclusion of teachers’ stories about their pedagogical practice; (3) the meeting of ethical criteria that connects a teacher’s actions to an articulate and defensible end-in-view or vision of the good.

In the past decades narrative research has become an important resource for personal, professional and academic knowledge in many disciplines, including education. Among the many uses of this methodology, one especially influential view holds that it is possible to learn about how teachers understand their professional practice by studying their life histories ( Connelly and Clandinin, 1999 ; Elbaz-Luwisch, 2007 ; Olson and Craig, 2001 ). This raises a number of interesting perplexities about the epistemological status of the findings of this approach to narrative research in education. Is it reasonable, for example, to assume that teachers’ recollections about the past are sufficiently reliable to justify believing them, given that they are often tainted by subjective feelings? But if we are not justified in believing their personal memories, might there be other criteria that would entitle us intellectually to assent to them despite their questionable epistemological status? Finally, what is the connection between life histories and the practice of teaching, and might we be better prepared to explain what entitles us to believe teachers’ life stories even when those beliefs are not fully justified if we had a compelling account of this connection?

The question at hand is not of proving or refuting a claim, but rather of explaining how one idea can exist given counter views. The way to resolve this tension—what Robert Nozick (1981) calls philosophical explanations —is to examine these views within different and new conceptual frameworks; that is, to examine them dialectically. By confronting different arguments, comparing counter perspectives and contrasting various ideas, one can show how we can believe two ideas that are in tension with one another. In our case, the reliability of narrative knowledge, on the one hand, versus its origin in subjective experience on the other. This question presupposes that the act of telling does not grant epistemic status to teachers’ life stories. Thus, the purpose of this article is to consider the conditions under which it is reasonable to accept the testimony of teachers about their life histories as evidence for the sort of practical knowledge that informs their teaching.

I shall argue that there is a fundamental problem within narrative research that hinders us from accepting its findings. Because of conceptual ambiguity narrative researchers fail to make a connection between personal and practical knowledge, i.e. between the teacher’s life story and his teaching practice. The upshot of this ambiguity is a lack of rigorous and coherent connection between the teacher’s ethical views and his practice that vitiates the narrative researchers’ conclusions.

Following Tyler Burge (1993) , I suggest that although the knowledge claims of narrative researchers may not be fully justified , we might nonetheless be intellectually entitled to accept them. Entitlement is a line of defence for beliefs and behaviours that is epistemologically different from justification , for it is grounded in different reasons. Whereas justification is based on causal explanations , i.e. the common epistemic standard of justified, true (in the sense of correspondence theory) belief, entitlement is based on teleological explanations , which are interpretive in nature. They do not require a correspondence conception of truth. I propose three criteria to warrant our entitlement to knowledge claims in narrative research of the relevant sort. These conditions are interpretive, practical and ethical.

The article is divided into five parts. Following this introduction, Part II explores the philosophical tools I employ in order to form a philosophical explanation to the knowledge problem. Part III considers some of the criteria used to justify this sort of narrative research. Part IV examines the problems with these justifications by analysing two examples of narrative studies and reviewing critiques offered by Denis Phillips and Gary Fenstermacher. The final part is a response to these critiques based on Tyler Burge’s distinction between justification and entitlement. In this section I suggest three criteria that might entitle us to accept the testimony found in narrative research as a basis for understanding teacher practice based on Hanan Alexander’s ( 2003 , 2006 , 2010 ) transcendental interpretation of pragmatism.

In order to explain how it is possible to gain knowledge, given its origin in the teachers’ subjective experiences, one should study the claims and counterclaims that underlie the philosophical tension. In our case, this means studying narrative researchers’ claims alongside critique aimed at the way narrative researchers justify their knowledge claims. A possible way to do so is rooted in analytic philosophy, which provides two important tools for inquiry: logical analysis and conceptual analysis. The purpose of logical analysis is to examine the logical validity of the arguments; in other words, whether the conclusion follows from the premises. Following this sort of analysis, I ask narrative researchers questions such as: ‘How did you arrive at these conclusions?’ ‘What sort of evidence do you provide to establish warranted claims?’ ‘Does this evidence make sense?’ and ‘Do your conclusions follow logically in some reasonable sense from this evidence?’ Conceptual analysis aims to clarify key concepts used by narrative researchers in order to explore the epistemological foundations of this methodology. Here I ask: ‘What do you mean when you use such terms as “knowledge”, “practice”, “truth” and “justification” ’?

The task of explaining how knowledge is possible within narrative research cannot be exhausted by conceptual and logical analysis since these methods are aimed at proving or refuting philosophical arguments such as ‘ p is true’. (For example, a philosopher might use logical analysis to form an argument such as ‘the conclusions do not follow from the premises, therefore they are not valid’ or use conceptual analysis to assert: ‘the concept of “practical knowledge” as used in narrative research has two meanings’.) Showing us that p is true is not what we need in order to explain how p is possible given counter views, for we already believe this ( Nozick, 1981 , p. 10). What is needed is the sort of dialectical analysis sometimes found, for example, among epistemologists of testimony, philosophers of science, hermeneutic and pragmatic philosophers. In this sort of analysis I confront different arguments, compare counter stances and contrast various ideas in order to understand how it might be possible to rationally believe one thing given certain conflicting or contrasting attitudes that also seem reasonable. Relocating the central views in different contexts enables me to expand the scope of explanations I wish to offer, and to form not only a plausible explanation but also an interesting one.

The discussion in this article refers to the line of inquiry associated with Connelly and Clandinin ( 1999 ; Clandinin and Connelly, 1995 ; Xu and Connelly, 2009 ) and Elbaz-Luwisch ( 2007 ; Elbaz, 1983 , 1991 ) which maintains that a story is a portal through which a person enters the world and by which his experience of the world is interpreted and made personally meaningful ( Clandinin and Rosiek, 2007 ). ‘The story is the very stuff of teaching’, contends Elbaz ( 1991 , p. 3), ‘the landscape within which we live as teachers and researchers, and within which the work of teachers can be seen as making sense.’ Hence, it is possible to learn about teachers’ personal practical knowledge (i.e. what teachers know through their teaching experience) by studying their life histories. It is important to note that the purpose of narrative research is not to convey the teachers’ recollection of the past as it really happened, but to understand why teachers act in a certain way. This kind of understanding entails engaging teachers’ justifications of their actions as expressed in their life stories rather than trying to depict events precisely as they occurred.

The attempt to understand teacher education using narrative representation developed out of a wider qualitative critique of the positivistic approach to research in education ( 2003 , 2006 , 2010 ). This approach uses standards based upon a positivist interpretation of natural science for establishing warranted knowledge ( Fenstermacher, 1994 ). Narrative researchers claim that quantitative research within this positivist paradigm creates knowledge-for-teaching which is theoretical and abstract, rather than teacher knowledge , which ignores the fact that teachers ‘know’ a great deal about their work. ( Xu and Connelly, 2009 ).

This critique has a number of important epistemological implications. First, as opposed to positivist educational research that focuses on the teaching process and its outcomes in order to obtain knowledge, the focus of narrative research is on the teachers themselves. This position is based on belief in ‘teachers as knowers’. Teachers know themselves, their educational situations, curriculum, students, and culture ( Connelly and Clandinin, 1999 ; Xu and Connelly, 2009 ). Second, a teacher’s knowledge is practical rather then propositional ( Elbaz, 1983 ; Butt et al ., 1992 ).

But what does the concept ‘practical knowledge’ mean? Aristotle (1994) was the first to distinguish between two sorts of knowledge: one theoretical ( Sophia ), within which we describe the world and understand it; the other practical ( Phronesis ), which entails the virtues one has to possess in order to achieve eudemonia , that is, wellbeing. Hence, practical wisdom is the knowledge or understanding that enables its possessor to do the right thing on the right time. Viewed in this light, practical knowledge can never be divorced from values, for the practically wise agent is always in a moral position when he acts. It is important to note that Aristotle is not suggesting an ethic of actions, but an ethic of virtues ( arête ). The first is a theory of rules (for example, the Ten Commandments) that focuses on what we ought and ought not to do. At the heart of this view are worthwhile deeds, whereas the just man is simply the one that does them. The second perspective focuses on the agent and the virtues he needs to acquire in order to act justly. According to Aristotle, we have to identify the just man first (for example, a man who is generous, honest and temperate) and then determine what would count as just behaviour. However, ‘it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts, the temperate man; without doing these, no one would have even a prospect of becoming good’ ( Dunne, 1993 , p. 290).

One can immediately recognise the circularity in Aristotle’s practical wisdom, for in order to do the right thing one needs to understand what ‘right’ means. But only a wise agent who has the apt virtues can grasp the meaning of the concept ‘right’. It seems that in order to be phronetic one needs to possess certain virtues and in order to obtain those virtues, one must act phronetically. Still, what is important in Aristotle’s epistemology of practice is the way he ties ethic to practice.

Narrative researchers endorse this concept of practical knowledge. They characterise the content of teachers’ practical knowledge as follows. First, teachers’ practical knowledge is personal ( Elbaz, 1983 ). Coping with the lively business of the classroom entails conflicts and dilemmas that teachers resolve within personal principles, mental images, past experiences, beliefs and personal understanding of the practical circumstances ( Carter, 1993 ; Clandinin and Connelly, 1995 ). Elbaz ( 1991 , p. 15) points out that ‘teachers necessarily speak from a moral standpoint’. Thus, the knowledge that teachers use in their work is not simply technical, but involves personal matters that people carry in their minds and bodies whenever they act. Personal knowledge also includes knowledge that we accumulate within interpersonal relationships ( Scheffler, 1965 ). Teachers know many people: students, colleagues, parents and principals. In sum, teachers’ personal knowledge encompasses their knowledge about themselves and others.

Second, teachers’ practical knowledge is very often tacit. Narrative researchers accept Polanyi’s (1958) view that for the most part knowledge of a craft is not articulated. In the same manner, ‘though teachers may not be able to say what they know, they feel—emotionally, morally and aesthetically—their knowledge’ ( Xu and Connelly, 2009 , p. 223).

Third, since practical knowledge relates to certain circumstances, this type of knowledge is contextual. Teachers decide how to deal with dilemmas in a particular lesson according to the surroundings: instructional strategies, pedagogic choices, student evaluations and even the way a classroom is arranged are all actions that change by virtue of influences from within the environment ( Carter, 1993 ). Clandinin and Connelly (1995) have termed teacher knowledge professional knowledge landscapes to emphasise the social dimension and the influence of specific environments and contexts on the work of teachers.

An important aspect of teachers’ practical knowledge is the way teachers obtain their knowledge. The epistemology of narrative research derived from Dewey’s (1910) ontology and epistemology, both of which are grounded in the concept of experience. Dewey claims that the dual epistemology that Rationalism and Empiricism created has led philosophical thinking to a dead end. The dichotomy between the view that we learn about the world through our minds and the view that we do so through our senses, contends Dewey, is false. There are no facts that present themselves independently; rather these facts depend on specific kinds of practice for their existence as an object of knowledge. Dewey formed a different ontology in which experiences are the ‘entities’ that exist in the world. These experiences are derived from the dialectic relationship between the subject and his or her social and natural surroundings. We experience the world as a whole and develop our knowledge through experience ( Dewey, 1938 ). Schön (1983) called this knowledge-in-action . Similarly, teachers obtain practical knowledge by everyday actions in different environments and through a variety of pedagogical experiences ( Elbaz-Luwisch, 2007 ). Teachers constantly shape and elaborate their knowledge by means of new experiences and reflection on previous actions.

Narrative researchers hold their inquiries to be epistemically worthy, thus they use rhetorical and aesthetic criteria in order to warrant their knowledge claims. Rhetorical standards, such as plausibility ( Polkinghorne, 2007 ) or likelihood of persuasion ( Levering, 2007 ) aim to convince us that the interpretations narrative researchers suggest are reasonable. The reason that aesthetic criterions such as verisimilitude, enjoyment ( Freeman, 2007 ), attractiveness ( Barone, 1992 ), the extent to which a description is animating ( 1990 ), and the degree to which a narrative is well formed ( Connelly and Clandinin, 1990 ) have epistemic value relates to the purpose of this type of methodology. If we wish to learn from stories about teachers’ experiences, contend narrative researchers, then only good stories—stories that have aesthetic quality—will enable us to do so.

Analysing the criteria that narrative researchers use to warrant their knowledge claims raises a fundamental problem within this tradition. As mentioned, narrative researchers believe that it is possible to learn about teachers’ professional knowledge by studying their life story. In other words, narrative researchers in Connelly and Clandinin’s tradition wish to draw a logical connection between personal and practical knowledge. The problem is that the fail to do so, for they do not use criteria to justify the teachers’ deeds , but rather they focus on justifying their interpretation of the teacher’s story. In the following section I examine two examples of narrative studies that illustrate my argument.

Consider Black and Halliwell’s (2000) study ‘Accessing Practical Knowledge: How? Why?’ which employs alternative forms of representation such as drawing, metaphor, journals and story writing to generate new insights into Sandy’s (a preschool teacher) practical knowledge. At first they define practical knowledge as ‘knowledge that is assembled in forms that make it possible to manage teaching practicalities’ (p. 104). This definition includes all types of knowledge: propositional, practical and personal, since it implies that everything that teachers know which help them at work counts as practical knowledge. Next, they present a dilemma Sandy has faced in her work with a child named Nicholas (p. 107):

He (Nicholas) had been running, screaming, basically ignoring me all week, running out the front door and banging the gate and screaming, not wanting to get out, just creating a scene. So I eventually lost my temper with Nicholas and as I was talking loudly (yelling) at him his mum walked in. She looked absolutely crushed and disappointed. My immediate reaction was, Oh great! Now she’s going to think I scream at him all day. So I went to her to explain what had been happening in Nicholas’s day. She began to cry. Would I have felt so bad if his mum had not walked in at that particular moment and cried? Yes, probably because the behavior and lack of improvement is really starting to get to me.

In the rest of the paper Black and Halliwell give an account of Sandy’s practical knowledge by presenting her drawings, metaphors and life story to suggest that these forms enable access to Sandy’s practical knowledge. Here are some examples of the evidence that supports their claim that ‘Constructing and re-constructing personal narratives helped each individual to identify enduring images guiding her practice, resulting in greater awareness and better understandings of who she was, and why she did what she did’ (p. 112).

(1) When examining her life history, Sandy traced her image back to her family upbringing (p. 107).

(2) Used alongside her drawing, this helped her get in touch with her feelings of distress about the behaviour of Nicholas and other children with complicated family backgrounds. It helped her identify her own knowledge needs: What to do to help these children? How to cope with the pressures of her work? Creating this metaphor assisted the process of examining the enduring images which guided her work, her emotions, and current and ongoing actions (pp. 108–109).

(3) Through writing a journal, Sandy realised a lot of things about herself : that she was feeling symptoms of burnout or that she lacks information how to deal with children like Nicholas (pp. 110, 111).

However, Black and Halliwell’s practical conclusion does not follow from their narrative evidence. Those forms of representation generate new insights into Sandy’s personal knowledge, but not her practical knowledge. Indeed, the authors present a plausible story (i.e. the interpretation sounds reasonable). Yet, they hardly concern themselves with Sandy’s actions . In the above quotes we can see that through metaphors and life history we gain insight into Sandy’s personal knowledge, but what about Sandy’s practice? Do we have any clue about what Sandy does in her teaching? How does she ‘manage the complexities of many everyday teaching situations’ (p. 104)? Apart from one reference to Sandy’s behaviour towards Nicholas (mainly shouting at him), there is not one word about Sandy’s teaching practice.

The fact that we are familiar with Sandy’s life story or that we understand how she feels about her work and what motivates her, is not sufficient to persuade us that the writers have revealed Sandy’s practical knowledge. In order to assert this type of claim, they should present the what along with the why . It is clear that the researchers endorse the view that the personal indeed informs practice, but at the same time they ignore the practice itself.

Conle, Li and Tan’s (2002) ‘Connecting Vicarious Experience to Practice,’ suffers from similar validity problem. In their research, they argue that reading biographies enhances the practical knowledge of participants, in this case, student teachers. The problem with the way they justify this claim is not the implausibility of their interpretation—the stories they tell seem likely—but rather, once again, the absence of reference to the participants’ practice. The authors describe in great detail the participants’ memories which arise as a result of reading these biographies, but they barely tie them to the way the participants acts as a teachers. Though we get pieces of interpretation that are plausible, they fail to serve as justification for participants’ practical knowledge.

To sum up, these examples illustrate a fundamental problem within narrative research that hinders us from accepting its findings. The problem lies in conceptual ambiguity and equivocation. There are two concepts of practice at work here: the idea of personal-practical knowledge of the sort formed in life stories (i.e. teachers’ past experiences, memories etc.) and practical knowledge of teachers as it expresses itself in what they are actually able to do in the classroom and with what degree of merit or proficiency. We have seen that narrative researchers in Connelly and Clandinin’s tradition wish to draw a logical connection between personal and practical knowledge, however they fail to do so since they do not distinguish between the two senses of the concept ‘practical knowledge’. The result of this ambiguity is a lack of rigorous and coherent connection between the teacher’s life story and his teaching practice that vitiates the epistemic status of the researchers’ conclusions.

Difficulties of this sort are tied to problems revealed within the two leading critiques levelled against the use of rhetorical and aesthetic criteria in narrative research. The first is Phillips ( 1994 ; Shavelson, Phillips, Towne, and Feuer, 2003 ) argument that narrative researchers’ accounts are not justified since they do not meet the criteria of truth as corresponding theory. According to his view, rhetorical and aesthetic criteria are not epistemically relevant: ‘there is nothing in the use of narrative form, by itself’, he contends, ‘that guarantees the veracity of the content of the account or which vitiates the need for the usual epistemic warrants used in science’ ( Shavelson et al ., 2003 , p. 27). Phillips, as a member of the post-positivism camp, believes that the epistemic principles of scientific research (e.g. justified, true belief) apply to narrative research. For him, verifiability is the key issue, since he assumes that the connection between the story and the teacher’s practical knowledge is a causal one. Moreover, without a stringent demand for truth conceived in this way, it seems that nearly every story would count as credible as long as it sounds like a story. In many cases, Phillips (1994) argues, the question of the story’s veracity is crucial. Suppose we decide to build a program for teacher training on the basis of teachers’ stories. Clearly, building this program on false stories may have detrimental results.

Fenstermacher (1994) offers a different line of critique. In his view, narrative researchers who deal with teachers’ practical knowledge should justify their claims on two different levels: the participant’s knowledge and the researcher’s knowledge. Unlike other forms of inquiry, narrative researchers assert that teachers have knowledge of something. The epistemic merit of their practical knowledge claims hinges upon the justification of the teacher’s actions; otherwise we could say that their account merely describes what the teacher expressed in the course of action, speech, or writing. These expressions may count as practical knowledge only if they meet criteria that distinguish between more intelligent or less intelligent activity. This is the first level. The second level is the researcher’s discourse, namely his interpretation. In their attempts to reveal teachers’ knowledge, narrative researchers do not simply express a point of view or describe an occurrence, but rather they form a knowledge claim. Thus, they should make an effort to justify their account.

In summary, if narrative researchers wish to form assertions about what teachers know, they should justify a teacher’s actions as expressed in his life story, together with their interpretation of his story. In the absence of warrant on any level, we cannot be justified in believing narrative researchers’ findings.

Although attractive, Phillips’ and Fenstermacher’s views are not without difficulties of their own. In order to understand these drawbacks, a distinction between causal explanations that post-positivists seek to reveal and teleological or purposive explanations that are common among qualitative researchers needs to be done. Post-positivists presuppose that things, objects, facts, events, and behaviours are related to one another in a mechanical manner in the sense that one thing pushes the other to behave in a certain way; therefore there is a causal connection between them. According to their view the task of scientific inquiry is to discover universal laws or statistical generalisations by deductive and inductive reasoning, explain relations between dependent and independent variables, and predict some consequences from the initial conditions by randomised experimentation ( Hempel, 1966 ). In order to justify this causal link (i.e. that predictable consequences are necessarily or probably caused by defined events under given conditions), they claim, one should provide empirical evidence that corresponds to an external reality ( Alexander, 2006 , 2010 ).

Contrary to this view, qualitative researchers hold that when it comes to human affairs, scientific inquiry should strive to understand human behaviour and not predict or control it. People cannot be conceived as things, they say, since they don’t act mechanically because of the influence of independent variables, but rather they choose how to act in light of some telos (end, purpose) that is established on the basis of culture, norms, language, tradition or past experiences.

The roots of this sort of explanation go back to Aristotle and his distinction between theory ( Sophia ) and practical wisdom ( Phronesis ). He argued that there are two ways of reasoning within which we can grasp reality: techne , designed to reveal what he called the mechanical causes of events and episteme , which focuses on teleological (purposive) causes. Mechanical causes ‘push’ events randomly into being. In terms of the modern science this means that a dependent variable is moved mechanically or technically by an independent one. In teleological causes, on the other hand, the ultimate telos (purpose) ‘pull’ an event toward a natural state inherent in the very rational design or meaning of things ( Alexander, 2006 ; Smith, 2002 ).

Charles Taylor (1964) and Georg Henrik von Wright (1981) took this teleological thinking one step further by suggesting that humans are purposeful beings, and so to understand human behaviour we should inquire into the norms, customs, and purposes that govern one’s deeds. For Taylor this telos will always be subordinate to higher ideals, which he calls strong values. In other words, teleological explanations are essentially interpretative, having to do with the norms, experiences and interpretation of the world that motivate (in the sense of pulling forward, not pushing) one to behave in a particular way, thus in order to be able to understand why people act the way they do, we need to explore the normative system that underlies their behaviour.

Now, Phillips seems to hold that the connection between the story (personal-practical knowledge) and the teaching practice (professional knowledge) is a causal one; therefore it should be justified by applying to empirical evidence that corresponds to external reality, whereas this connection is fundamentally teleological. We have seen that narrative researchers wish to illuminate teaching practice by exploring teachers’ professional knowledge as expressed in their life stories. In other words, their main goal is to understand why a teacher chooses to act in a certain way by exploring his or her past experiences as interpreted within the context of a particular story. The link here between past experiences and present teaching practice is not a causal but a teleological one. Hence, the sort of explanation that narrative researchers seek to offer is a teleological explanation of that practice based on life stories.

What is interesting in Phillips’ argument is that he acknowledges that narrative research is not about seeking some kind of mechanism in teachers’ behaviour, but rather understanding their actions, yet he insists that this tradition should meet the criteria of truth as correspondence theory. This view is problematic since teleological explanations are designed to know the world in terms of the telos or purpose that guides events, thus truth can only be conceived through the prism of our history, culture and tradition ( Alexander, 2010 ). To doubt the epistemic merit of teleological analysis because it does not meet the criteria of truth in the sense of corresponding theory means not to distinguish between two senses of the notion ‘scientific explanation’ as suggested by Aristotle. The fact that teleological explanations do not meet the criteria of truth as correspondence theory does not mean they are not as scientific as causal explanations, since they present another way of reasoning within which we can grasp realit y.

In the wake of the distinction between causal and teleological explanations and the analysis of two narrative studies, I suggest that the problem with the way narrative researchers warrant their knowledge claims is not that they cannot determine the veracity of teachers’ testimony (as Phillips holds), but rather that they often fail to outline a persuasive description of the teacher’s practical knowledge , the assessment of which requires a concomitant theory of what should be counted as good practice.

I agree with Fenstermacher’s call for dual justification, on the teacher level and on the researcher level. If narrative researchers wish to make clear where the teacher’s practical knowledge lies within his life story, they ought to justify both their interpretation and the teachers’ action. Yet, I disagree with his view that using these justifications allows us to be justified in believing narrative researchers’ knowledge claims. We may only be entitled to believe their knowledge claims, for we can never verify the truth of the teachers’ testimony. This is not a merely matter of semantics. One can say (as Phillips pointed out) that we are justified in accepting narrative researchers’ arguments if and only if these accounts are real. This is one of the epistemic requirements that scientists work with, and if narrative researchers want to be taken seriously, they should conform to this requirement. However, the fact that narrative researchers can never verify teachers’ stories, I suggest, does not defeat the epistemic merit of narrative researchers’ claims but grants it a different epistemic status: entitlement. This claim is based on Tyler Burge’s (1993) distinction between justification and entitlement that will be discussed in the following section.

The concept of ‘entitlement’ is derived from a unique domain of epistemology called epistemology of testimony within which philosophers have tried to form the conditions under which one can obtain knowledge on the basis of a testimony. 1 In this discussion Tyler Burge (1993) distinguishes between two epistemic statuses: justification and entitlement. Justification means a posteriori warrant. That is, to be justified in accepting information from someone else we ought to rely on epistemic sources such as sense data, perceptual beliefs, deductive or inductive reasoning and memory regarding the source’s truthfulness or its epistemic status. Entitlement, on the other hand, is a priori in the sense that it requires no positive empirical reasons to support it. According to Burge, in many cases—as children and often as adults—we lack reasons not to accept what we are told. We normally accept historical truths, mathematical maxims or scientific laws from teachers, experts or people who we consider to be authorities without having any access to their reasons. The fact that we lack reasons in favour of these assertions does not hinder us from relying on this information and taking it as true. Hence, we are entitled to believe a person’s telling (Burge calls this ‘a presumptive right’) as long as we lack reasons to doubt it.

Burge’s epistemic view has been criticised under the claim that this normative epistemic right yields a credulous attitude towards any testimony since it implies that on any occasion of testimony, we have the epistemic right to assume, without evidence, that the speaker is trustworthy, i.e. that what she says will be true, unless there are special circumstances which defeat this presumption ( Fricker, 1994 ). Another criticism levelled against Burge’s view suggests that his approach is implausible since human experience has a substantive role in the process of warranting other’s assertions. According to this view, we use our senses to justify what someone says in the same way that we justify propositions such as p is true ( Christensen and Kornblith, 1997 ).

Though I find these critiques plausible, I believe that Burge’s view provides a useful conceptual framework to clarify how we should think about the epistemic status of teachers’ stories, for his distinction between justification and entitlement enables us to talk about two epistemic statutes that are grounded in different sorts of reasons : the first one is justification, which is based on the common epistemic standard of justified, true (in the sense of correspondence theory) belief, while the second is entitlement not à la Burge (i.e. a priori ), but based on positive reasons—teleological explanations—which do not require a correspondence conception of truth. In other words, entitlement as suggested by Burge is an epistemic right or warrant that constitutes knowledge as justification, but derived from a different type of reasons: the lack of negative reasons instead of positive reasons. Hence it seems reasonable to say that although we are not justified in believing narrative researchers’ conclusions because they do not meet the criteria of truth as correspondence theory, we nonetheless might be entitled to accept them in the case that the connection between teachers’ life stories (personal-practical knowledge) and their professional knowledge is well-articulated by teleological explanations that emerge from the teachers’ life stories. These teleological explanations refer to the ethical ends upon which people act, therefore they hold justificational force, i.e. they function as reasons one provides in order to justify one’s behaviour.

I propose three criteria to warrant our entitlement to knowledge claims in narrative research of the relevant sort that tie rhetoric to practice and ethics: (1) the meeting of hermeneutic standards such as plausibility, adequacy, and persuasion; (2) the inclusion of teachers’ stories about their pedagogical practice; (3) the meeting of ethical criteria that connects a teacher’s actions to an articulate and defensible end-in-view ( Dewey, 1938 ) or vision of the good ( Alexander, 2006 , 2010 ). It is worth noting that while the hermeneutic criterion relates to the first sense of practical knowledge, i.e. the life story of the teachers, their past experiences, memories, events etc., the practical criterion relates to the practical knowledge in the sense of professional knowledge, i.e. what teachers are actually able to do in the classroom and with what degree of merit or proficiency. The ethical criterion relates to the connection between these two senses of ‘practical knowledge’.

Hermeneutic standards entail such criteria as plausibility, adequacy, and persuasion, which are aimed at convincing us that a researcher’s interpretation of a teacher’s life story makes sense. Justifying or validating these accounts can be conducted from a variety of interpretative tools: thematic analysis, structural analysis and the researcher’s reflectivity about the prejudices that guide his understanding. These hermeneutic criterions enable us to appreciate the interpretation of the teachers’ life stories offered by narrative researchers.

Practical conditions apply to teachers’ practice—professional knowledge as expressed in the life story. According to this condition, narrative studies should include teachers’ stories about their pedagogical practice, in addition to other aspects of their life histories. Teachers must testify not only about their childhood or adult life, but also about specific actions in their professional practice. In the absence of evidence referring to their abilities as professionals, we cannot be entitled to accept narrative researchers’ accounts, for such evidence is indispensable for illuminating teaching practice within teachers’ life stories.

Ethical conditions tie a teacher’s narrative to his or her professional practice in a teleological manner. Following Aristotle, Dewey, Taylor and von-Wright, Alexander ( 2005, 2005 , 2006 , 2010 ) argues that human activity is never conducted in a vacuum, but rather within norms, ideas and values that are constantly being shaped by culture, language, history and tradition. However, this teleological connection, to his view, can only be properly understood within the confines of a coherent and defensible concept of the good. This framework consists of standards for a vision of the good life that are assumed, at least as a regulative principle, to transcend the experience of any individual or group, even though we can only grasp their meaning from within the confines of our own contingent lives. In the case of narrative research, of the relevant sort, this means the teacher’s understanding of what counts as good teaching practice or what is considered as a worthwhile activity. Thus, in order to understand why a teacher chooses to act in a certain way we need to explore the purposes and intentions, the values, ideals and norms, that are established on past experiences and which govern people’s lives, in the sense of motivating them to behave in a particular manner.

Those ethical views require commitment to what Alexander ( 2001, 2001 , 2010 ) has called the three conditions of ethical discourse: the assumption that people are intelligent, free, and fallible. To be able to hold a moral stance, one must possess the intelligence to think critically about why, whether and to what degree a standard of merit has been achieved. Another feature of ethical discourse is the assumption that people are free agents. One can talk meaningfully about moral standards only if it is assumed within reasonable limits that people are the agents of their own actions and so able to choose one course over another. But the fact that someone is the agent of his action entails the possibility that he or she could be wrong, according to the relevant ethical theory. Viewed in this light, dogmatic standards cannot be considered as ethical, since they would be closed to interaction and emendation on the basis of feedback from the practical environment in which the teacher practices his or her craft.

In this article I have argued that although the knowledge claims of narrative researchers may not be justified , we might nonetheless be intellectually entitled to accept them if they provide a plausible reconstruction of events that is connected to a reasonable account of a teacher’s practice, presented within an articulate and defensible concept of what it could possibly mean for practice of that kind to be considered worthy of praise. 2

There are two different views on this issue. The reductionism view, following Hume (1999) , claims that only empirical evidence can count as a justification for acquiring testimonial knowledge, while the anti-reductionism camp holds that every assertion is creditworthy until shown otherwise ( Reid, 1970 ). The idea behind this approach is that there is an a priori connection between testimony and reality. The fact that we need positive reasons in order to justify others’ testimony, claims Coady (2002) , implies that under certain circumstances there is no conformity at all between testimony and reality. This supposition is not plausible since ‘ any utterance correlates with or conjoined to any situation according to some principle of matching’ (p. 245, italics in original). This view is based on a philosophical account named ‘externalism’ in which one’s justification to believe p depends on matters of facts that are external to one rather than on internal reasons such as perceptions, inference and such ( Goldman, 2000 ; Nozick, 1981 ).

A previous version of this article was presented at the PESGB conference in 2011. I am grateful to the audience for their comments. I’m also particularly indebted to Hanan Alexander and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments.

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This chapter focuses on the intellectual, philosophical, empirical, and pragmatic development of the turn toward narrative, tracing the rise of narrative inquiry as it evolved in the aftermath of the crisis of representation in the social sciences. Narrative inquiry seeks to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning and personal identity at the center, inviting the development of reflexive, relational, and interpretive methodologies and drawing attention not only on the actual but also to the possible and the good. The chapter synthesizes the changing methodological and ethical orientations of qualitative researchers associated with narrative inquiry; explores the divergent standpoints of small- story and big- story researchers, draws attention to the differences between narrative analysis and narratives-under-analysis; and reveals narrative practices that seek to help people form better relationships, overcome oppressive canonical identities, amplify or reclaim moral agency, and cope better with contingencies and difficulties experienced over the course of life.

Demystifying the Analysis Process of Talk Data: A Review of Analyzing Talk in the Social Sciences: Narrative, Conversation & Discourse Strategies

In Analyzing Talk in the Social Sciences: Narrative, Conversation & Discourse Strategies, Katherine Bischoping and Amber Gazso introduce three analytical approaches to talk data: narrative analysis, conversation analysis, and discourse analysis. Taking a sociological perspective, the authors engage in critical dialogue on research that employs these approaches, and provide step-by-step guide to analyzing talk data, using these strategies. They expand on introductory qualitative research concepts by taking up the complex interrelationships among epistemological, ontological, paradigmatical, and theoretical lenses that guide these analytical strategies. Through examples from a wide range of studies and their own research and advising experiences, Bischoping and Gazso articulate various analytical approaches to talk data to demonstrate the strength of these strategies in qualitative inquiry. Despite its minor shortcomings, such as its narrow focus on three analytical approaches and prevalent focus on talk data elicited in interviews, this book offers insights and strategies for students, faculty, and researchers interested in fine-tuning approaches guided by narrative analysis, conversation analysis, and discourse analysis.

The Routledge doctoral students' companion: getting to grips with research in education and the social sciences/The Routledge doctoral supervisors' companion: supporting effective research in education and the social sciences

Written text on pakistani vehicles: a critical discourse analysis.

Linguistically, the word ‘language’ has shifted into ‘discourse’ which is a social phenomenon not only to express the thoughts but also to reflect the mindset and contexts of a specific community. The purpose of this study is to examine the slogans written on Pakistani automobiles and to understand the logic behind the social and cultural affiliations of these slogans. Pakistani culture of the art of making pictures and written phrases, poetic verses and imperative sentences on vehicles is famous all over the world. The study has analysed the writings found on vehicles, and although these writings might look trivial on the automobiles, they address various social issues. The Three-Dimensional Model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Fairclough (2001) is used as a theoretical framework that explains the study at three levels: lexical, syntactic patterns, interpretations, and social practices. The discourses written on the vehicles are characterised into different categories, which are life’s mission statements, loud messages, mind baffling messages, everyday life annoyances, provoking statements, and religious looms. Twenty images and pictures have been captured from vehicles as a random sample of this study. The results reveal the mindset behind these discourses. They are used to highlight social issues which Pakistan faces, being a developing country. In short, the study discloses the strong link between the vehicles and the people using them to convey messages to the society which can bring harmony among the public. The current study is limited to only Pakistani motor vehicles.

Discourse Analysis of Written Text on Pakistani Public Transport Vehicles

This research focuses on the discourse analysis of the text written on Pakistani public transport vehicles. The data were collected from the roads, parking lots and market places in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The text was written in three languages, English, Urdu and Punjabi. The sample size was fifty but in order to delimit the study, the data size was reduced to ten. The data classification was done keeping into consideration the grounded theory, as the thematic categories of data emerged after data collection. They included love for religion, parents, opposite sex and country. Moreover, it highlighted the theme of morality, socio-economic problems, desire for upward mobility and wisdom-based quotations. The data were then analyzed keeping in mind Janks’ rubrics for linguistic analysis. The linguistic analysis showed that the text employs lexicalization, overlexicalization, lexical cohesion and there is extensive use of metaphors, euphemism and personification. It was noted that the text was multilingual as it was in Urdu, Punjabi or English language with a lot of code switching. The data were then further analyzed to highlight the social and moral attributes of language users, the socio-economic problems they face and their struggle for upward mobility. The social analysis provided a deep insight into the life of public transport drivers in Pakistani society.

Research in Education Draws Widely From the Social Sciences and Humanities

It is well-known that education related research is carried out within different disciplines and frameworks, but how is it specifically connected through citations to the larger social sciences and humanities? And how can this knowledge be mobilized to improve dialogue between researchers in different communities, given the benefits of integrating different frameworks and methods? We used different scientometric methods to show where exactly research in education connects to social sciences and humanities. This multidisciplinary context provokes a set of integration challenges for research in education. We propose how our work can supplement an existing model in order to give a framework for meeting these challenges with the goal of achieving broader education-related collective knowledge advancement.

La pensée postmoderne et la criminologie

This article is an attempt to investigate the various meanings of the words "postmodernity", "postmodernism" and "postmodern". ft also assesses the significance of these words and of the concepts that they express for criminology. The paper is divided in three parts. The first part tries to dispell important misunderstandings that have sprung in relation to postmodernism. The most significant of these is the belief that there is such a thing as a postmodernist "method" in the social sciences. The second part identifies the origin of the term "postmodern" and discusses various themes which are perceived to be characteristic of postmodern thought. These themes are: the present legitimation crisis, the internal reflexivity of scientific theory, discourse analysis and meta-language, social and cultural fragmentation and historical pessimism. The last part draws the consequences of the preceding analyses for the development of criminology.

Discourse Analysis

This chapter describes discourse analysis. In linguistics, discourse is generally defined as a continuous expression of connected written or spoken language that is larger than a sentence. However, as a method in the social sciences, discourse analysis (DA) gave rise to diatribes about where to set the borders of discourse. As language constitutes the very entry point to the world, some discourse analysts argue that all that exists acquires meaning through language. Does this mean that discourse constitutes reality? Is there anything outside text and discourse? Or is discourse one among many means of social construction? The evolution of DA in social science unearths an ontological debate between ‘realists’ and ‘nominalists’, which eventually reverberates in epistemological strategies.

Tales from the South

Abstract This article presents some of the theoretical-epistemological assumptions and methods which underpin Narrative Analysis in Brazil. In the niche we have carved out for ourselves, we combine (auto)ethnographic techniques with analytical tools which draw on both narrative analysis and sociolinguistics, as well as discourse analysis more widely speaking. In this paper, we especially seek to address what we consider the symbiotic relationship between the aforementioned field of study and contemporary transdisciplinary social research. This is done by showcasing examples of narrative research carried out in Brazil, particularly those motivated by sociopolitical concerns. Moreover, we aim to contribute to the debate ignited in post-truth times by the performative view we take of language, and so to speak narrative, by contemplating the practical repercussions of innovations stemming from the current state of affairs within the context of our own investigations.

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Research Guides

Narrative Analysis

Nicole Ayers; Alexandra Fields; and Michelle Koehler

Description

Narrative analysis is a research methodology that is primarily used in qualitative research with the goal of understanding research participants’ “self-generated meanings” (Flick, 2014, p. 204). Narrative analysis uses participants’ voices and the events that participants describe as occurring in their lives in order to construct a chronological story from the data (Franzosi, 1998). Narrative analysis is seen as particularly helpful in conveying how the participants’ lived experiences, including their self-perceptions, perceptions of events, and perceptions of others, informs their understanding of themselves and the world, and it is rooted in a variety of narrative theories that help those engaging in narrative analysis identify different structures for generating stories out of data (Herman & Vervaeck, 2005). Not only does narrative analysis lend itself well to critical and interpretivist paradigms, but it is also seen as a particularly useful tool for ethnographers. The majority of researchers who employ narrative analysis methodologies do so because they want to understand the many contradictions and layers of meaning found in narratives as well as to understand how “narratives operate dialogically between the personal and the surrounding social worlds that produce, consume, silence and contest them” (Flick, 2014, p. 204). Therefore, narrative analysis offers researchers the opportunity to deconstruct participants’ stories and to recontextualize them within the larger social world, which can prove helpful to both interpretivist and critical paradigms that hope to explore and, potentially, contend misperceptions about those being studied.

Not only does narrative analysis lend itself well to critical and interpretivist paradigms, but it is also seen as a particularly useful tool for ethnographers. Specifically, since ethnographers frequently employ participant interviews as the tool for constructing an understanding of social phenomena and social locations, narrative analysis can provide a unique lens for ethnographers to place participants’ stories at the center of their research (Franzosi, 1998). Moreover, ethnographers have often been criticized for reifying existing stereotypes and misperceptions of their research participants. Narrative analysis, therefore, is seen as a potential strategy for ensuring that participants are the ones sharing their stories as opposed to the researchers sharing their interpretations of participants’ experiences (Gubrium & Holstein, 1999; Kim, 2016).

Flick, U. (2014). The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis . London, England: SAGE.

Franzosi, R. (1998). Narrative analysis: Or why (and how) sociologists should be interested in narrative. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 517-554. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.517

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (1999). At the border of narrative and ethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography , 28 (5), 561–573. https://dx.doi-org/10.1177/089124199129023550

Herman, L., & Vervaeck, B. (2005). Handbook of narrative analysis . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Kim, J.-H. (2016). Understanding narrative inquiry: The crafting and analysis of stories as research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Key Research Books and Articles on Narrative Analysis Methodology

In this paper, Franzosi makes the case for why sociologists should consider narrative analysis methodologies, suggesting that narrative analysis naturally aligns with the field of sociology. Franzosi asserts that since much of the empirical data that sociologists collect is inherently written as narrative, it is only natural for sociologists to utilize narrative analysis as a methodological approach to their research. Moreover, because Franzosi provides a clear working definition of narrative analysis, then walks readers through analysis of a narrative text, this paper is a useful tool not just for sociologists but for all academics interested in narrative analysis and looking for clarity on how one might engage in the narrative analysis of text.

In this article, Gubrium and Holstein assert that researchers often exist between the borders of ethnographic and narrative methodologies, and that, in the future, rather than delineating clear borders between these methodologies, researchers should instead become comfortable existing within the tensions of this border. Specifically, the argument is made that ethnographic research has been criticized for often reifying existing stereotypes or misunderstandings of those being studied rather than presenting an interpretation of the participants and their spaces/places through the eyes of those existing within them. Therefore, the suggestion is that narrative analysis could provide a tool for ethnographers to better understand the role of incorporating participants’ stories and understandings of their spaces and places within the ethnographic study. This paper is helpful then in demonstrating a rationale as well as a means for ethnographers to incorporate narrative analysis into their methodologies.

In this handbook, the authors define a variety of narrative theories and illuminate the potential benefits and limitations of each. The authors divide the book into three chapters based upon major narrative theoretical constructs: “Before and Surrounding Structuralism,” “Structuralism,” and “Post-Classical Narratology”. Within each chapter, the authors begin by providing the history and development of each theory as well as concrete understandings of how academics, researchers, and theorists alike would approach narrative analysis from their varied perspectives depending upon their narrative theory alignment. For example, the authors explain how classical structuralists and post-classicists approach narrative analysis differently, and they use two stories as models for demonstrating the different nuanced approaches to narrative analysis (p. 103). This text serves as a useful tool for those looking to engage in narrative analysis but struggling to understand its varied theoretical underpinnings and how they inform one’s approach to narrative analysis. however, for those looking for a basic definition and understanding of approaches to narrative analysis, this predominantly theoretical text may prove cumbersome.

Josselson, R. and Lieblich, A. (1999). Making meaning of narratives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

In this book, the authors present readers with ten essays that explore the use of narrative analysis within a variety of disciplines, including literary studies, nursing, criminology, sociology, and psychology. The first essay, unlike the other nine, begins by elucidating the issues, both methodological and ethical, that researchers may face by using people’s stories as their primary and/or only source of data, and it helps readers understand the notion of narratives telling many different truths. The other nine essays provide examples of narrative analysis research within specific disciplines. The strengths of this book are that it helps researchers conceptualize the varied ways in which narrative analysis can be applied and to think critically about the “multiple truths” that can be explored through narrative analysis. Thus, if one is less interested in the history of narrative analysis or multiple definitions of narrative analysis, but instead wants to see examples of narrative analysis in action, this book will prove useful.

Kim, J.-H. (2016). Understanding narrative inquiry: The crafting and analysis of stories as research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

This textbook provides both a theoretical and methodological understanding of narrative inquiry as a qualitative research theory and methodology. The book begins by exploring the many disciplines in which narrative inquiry can be employed and the theoretical underpinnings behind narrative inquiry. After providing a wealth of theoretical lenses for which researchers might employ narrative inquiry, Dr. Kim then provides explicit feedback on how one should engage in data collection and analysis using narrative inquiry; the book ends by addressing critical issues to consider as narrative researchers and including examples of narrative inquiry in action. Therefore, this textbook provides a thorough examination of narrative inquiry through both theoretical and methodological lenses, and it is highly recommended for any qualitative researcher interested in engaging in narrative research.

Recent Dissertations Using Narrative Analysis Methodology

Njoku, N. R. (2017). Woman in the making: The impact of the constructed campus environment of Xavier University of Louisiana on the construction of Black womanhood . Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (Order Number 10637092)

This study adopts a narrative analysis approach as a means for giving voice to African American woman attending Xavier University of Louisiana. Through a narrative analysis approach, participants’ perspectives were not contrasted to others, but rather highlighted individually. The narrative inquiry approach is centered within Black feminist epistemology and works toward telling the stories of each participant. The research questions guiding this research are:

How do African American women construct Black womanhood?
What role does the HBCU [historically Black colleges and universities] campus environment play in facilitating these constructions of Black womanhood? (p. 6)

Participants were alumni of Xavier University who identified as both African-American and cisgender women. The data were initially gathered through in-depth interviews to establish a timeline and develop a relationship between researcher and participant. For the second aspect of data collection, participants were asked to compose a timeline of their lives, combining pictures with the narrative. This then was used as a prompt for further reflection as each participant shared stories about the pictures along the timeline. One implication of this study is that research that conflates Black men muffles the voices of the women, who have their own narratives and experiences to share. The lack of nuance between groups lessens the chances that the needs of these women will be met in their academic endeavors.

Petrone, D. (2016). A narrative analysis of women’s desires and contributions to community, sentience, agency and transformation: A narrative analysis . Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (Order Number 10146171)

The goal of this dissertation is to explore the ways that women and their community develop agency. A perspective of critical literacy and narrative inquiry create a space where participants explore and grow; the assumption remains that “humanity is not finished” (p. ii), which allows for continued growth and development.

Within this study, narrative analysis is utilized along with a critical approach to disrupt ideas of power. Within a narrative analysis view, the narrative is seen as data, and a stance of embracing change that connects the words to the world is adopted. Additionally, the idea of highlighting the connection or collaboration between researcher and participant is important throughout this study. Data were gathered through a focus group comprised largely of friends or acquaintances of the researcher who shared a sense of “unfinishedness” (p. 51), which then allowed for a connection based on common sharing and support. Interviews were the primary source of data, both within the larger focus group and then with individuals. The implications of this study are in the possibility for human development, specifically in relation to internal growth, as individuals work to read, and interact with, the world.

Wingfield, M. V. (2018). Becoming all that I can be: Narrative analysis of African-American students’ literacy perceptions and experiences in an urban Title I school . Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (Order Number 10784392)

Within in this study, students’ writing, specifically poetry, is analyzed for its narrative connections to the students’ own lives. This allows for students’ narratives to disrupt the deficit approach frequently connected with research around Title I schools by acknowledging their “culturally situated literacies, opinions, and academic potential for success” (p. 72). More specifically, the purpose of this study is to explore students’ perceptions of literacy experiences through high school. The research questions guiding this study are:

How do African-American high school graduates from a low-income urban community school describe their high school literacy experiences?
How do African-American students perceive the ways in which their literacy experiences were culturally responsive by addressing their varied literacy practices? (p. 16)

Narrative analysis was adopted to explore a critical approach and culturally responsive pedagogy. Data were gathered through interviews and artifacts that included books, photos, and the senior portfolio. These data were analyzed as points within a story, or as part of the participants’ narrative of their experience. The implications of this study are support of culturally responsive pedagogy and critical literacies in Title I schools.

Internet Resources

Centre for Narrative Research’s Blog ( https://centrefornarrativeresearch.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/centre-for-narrative-research-spring-summer-2018-events/ )

The Centre for Narrative Research Blog offers an up-to-date blog from The University of East London’s School of Social Sciences with events around the world, which narrative researchers could attend.

The Australian Department of Defense: “A Review of Narrative Methodology” Bibliography PDF ( http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/css506/506%20readings/review%20of%20narritive%20methodology%20australian%20gov.pdf )

The Australian Department of Defense: Defense, Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) published an annotated bibliography titled “A Review of Narrative Methodology.” The DTSO cites many publications of narrative methodology research that study human action. The executive summary that starts the bibliography provides a clear definition of narrative inquiry and its historical background.

Narrative Inquiry: What’s Your Story? ( http://qualitativeresearchontario.openetext.utoronto.ca/chapter/video-module-3-doing-qualitative-research/ )

A research guide from The University of Western Ontario provides video lectures pertaining to qualitative research. Scroll down to a video lecture, entitled, “Narrative Inquiry: What’s Your Story?” from Dr. Debbie Laliberte Rudman of The University of Western Ontario. The resource also includes a list of suggested readings.

Professional Organizations and Conferences

The following associations and conferences have a focus on Narrative Inquiry. They serve as a venue for presenting current research. They also serve as additional points for researchers to develop their understanding of and collaboration within the field of Narrative Inquiry.

The American Educational Resource Association (AERA) has a specific webpage for narrative research resources, which includes a YouTube Video of Vivian Gussin Paley’s discussion “How can we study the narrative of play when the children are given so little time to play?”, book suggestions with annotations, resources sorted by journals, books, teachers, multicultural, feminism, identity, qualitative books that include narrative research, specific journal articles, websites, and notes and comments from our members.

AERA Narrative Research SIG Website ( https://sites.google.com/site/aeranarrativeresearchsig/home/resources-1 )
The International Society for the Study of Narrative is an organization with an annual conference. http://narrative.georgetown.edu/conferences/
Narrative Matters is a biannual conference on narrative analysis. The 2018 conference was held at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/narrativematters2018/

Narrative Analysis Copyright © 2019 by Nicole Ayers; Alexandra Fields; and Michelle Koehler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Research Approaches to Narrative, Literacy, and Education

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First Online: 01 January 2016
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example of narrative research in education

Gigliana Melzi 5 &
Margaret Caspe 6

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

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Across cultures, oral narratives are woven into the fabric of everyday events and interactions. We tell stories to our peers as a way to establish and maintain friendships; caregivers tell stories to their children as a means to entertain and educate; and at school children and teachers share stories in the process of acquiring literacy. Narrative is a genre of oral discourse that combines various linguistic, cognitive, and social skills. Children’s narrative development emerges from the early conversations between the child and adult caregivers, and their early narrative skills are predictive of various abilities related to future school success. This brief review synthesizes past and current research on children’s oral narrative development and the connections between narrative abilities and other skills necessary for educational success. The review ends with a discussion of the challenges in conducting research with children’s oral narratives, as well as future directions in the application of narrative work to educational interventions.

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Melzi, G., Caspe, M. (2016). Research Approaches to Narrative, Literacy, and Education. In: King, K., Lai, YJ., May, S. (eds) Research Methods in Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02329-8_17-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02329-8_17-1

Received : 03 November 2014

Accepted : 08 August 2016

Published : 08 October 2016

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-02329-8

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Education Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Education

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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

This article is part of the research topic.

Using Case Study and Narrative Pedagogy to Guide Students Through the Process of Science

Molecular Storytelling: A Conceptual Framework for Teaching and Learning with Molecular Case Studies Provisionally Accepted

1 School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington Bothell, United States
2 Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, United States
3 Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Molecular case studies (MCSs) provide educational opportunities to explore biomolecular structure and function using data from public bioinformatics resources. The conceptual basis for the design of MCSs has yet to be fully discussed in the literature, so we present molecular storytelling as a conceptual framework for teaching with case studies. Whether the case study aims to understand the biology of a specific disease and design its treatments or track the evolution of a biosynthetic pathway, vast amounts of structural and functional data, freely available in public bioinformatics resources, can facilitate rich explorations in atomic detail. To help biology and chemistry educators use these resources for instruction, a community of scholars collaborated to create the Molecular CaseNet. This community uses storytelling to explore biomolecular structure and function while teaching biology and chemistry. In this article, we define the structure of an MCS and present an example. Then, we articulate the evolution of a conceptual framework for developing and using MCSs. Finally, we related our framework to the development of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPCK) for educators in the Molecular CaseNet. The report conceptualizes an interdisciplinary framework for teaching about the molecular world and informs lesson design and education research.

Keywords: Molecular education, Case studies, Technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPCK), Molecular structure and function, molecular visualization, Bioinformatics education, conceptual modeling

Received: 31 Jan 2024; Accepted: 23 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Trujillo and Dutta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Prof. Caleb M. Trujillo, University of Washington Bothell, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Bothell, United States

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