narrative research

/ 381

NARRATIVE RESEARCH

CEIT 712: Qualitative Research in Instructional Technology: Theory and Applications

/ 382

Narrative Research

1. What is narrative research?

2. What are the types of narrative designs?

3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?

4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?

5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?

CEIT 712

/ 383

What is narrative research?

A study of individuals’ life experiences told to researchers or obtained in documents and archival material

1

/ 384

What is narrative research?1

It focuses on • Studying a single person, • Gathering data through the

collection of stories, • Reporting individual experiences,

and • Discussing the meaning of those

experiences for the individual.

----------------------

--------

/ 385


HistoryLiterature

Human Sciences Anthropology

SociologySociolinguistics

Education

/ 386


Narrative Research

in Education

Emphasis on teachers’ reflection

Emphasis on teachers’

knowledgeBringing teachers’

voices to the forefront

/ 387

Narrative Research






CEIT 712

/ 388

What are the types of narrative designs?2

• Who writes or records the story?• How much of a life is recorded and presented?• Who provides the story?• Is a theoretical lens being used?• Can narrative forms be combined?

/ 389

Who writes or records the story?2What are the types of narrative designs? >

Biography vs. Autobiography

/ 3810

How much of a life is recorded and presented?2What are the types of narrative designs? >

Life history vs. Personal experiences

/ 3811

Who provides the story?2What are the types of narrative designs? >

Children

Teacher

Administrator

Other educational personnel

/ 3812

Is a theoretical lens being used?2What are the types of narrative designs? >

A theoretical lens in narrative research is a guiding perspective or ideology that provides structure for advocating groups or individuals in the written report.

The narrative researcher provides a voice in particular for marginalized individuals in the research.

/ 3813

Can narrative forms be combined?2What are the types of narrative designs? >

Biography Personal story

Teacher’s story

Feministic perspective

Narrative study

/ 3814

Narrative Research






CEIT 712

/ 3815

What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?3

• Individual experiences• Collecting individual stories• Chronology of the experiences• Restorying• Coding for themes• Context or setting• Collaborating with participants

/ 3816

Narrative Research






CEIT 712

/ 3817

4 What are some ethical issues in gathering stories?

• Distorting data

• Inability to tell the story because it is

horrific

• Forgetting story

/ 3818

Narrative Research






CEIT 712

/ 3819

Steps in conducting narrative research

Identify a phenomenon

to explore that

addresses an educational

problem

1

Purposefully select an individual

from whom you can learn

about the phenomenon

2

Collect the story from

that individual

3

Restory or retell the

individual’s story

4

Collaborate with the

participant–storyteller

5

Write a story about the

participant’s experiences

6

Validate the accuracy of the report

7

5

/ 3820

1. Identify a phenomenon to explore that addresses an educational problem

5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

Stories about whatE.g.: Stories about difficulties novice teachers have in meeting diverse needs of students

?Determining a research problem to study and identifying a central phenomenon

/ 3821

2. Purposefully select an individual from whom you can learn about the phenomenon

5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

Selecting one or more volunteer individuals who can provide an understanding of the phenomenon

/ 3822

3. Collect the story from that individual5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

Several ways to collect stories (field texts) from individuals:• Have the individual tell about his or her experiences through

personal conversations or interviews.

• Have the individual record his or her story in a journal or diary.

• Observe the individual and record field notes.

• Collect letters sent by the individual.

• Assemble stories about the individual from family members.

• Obtain photographs, and other personal/family/social artifacts.

/ 3823

4. Restory or retell the individual’s story5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

Chronological sequenceLogical connections among ideas? Analyzing it for key elements

Rewriting the story

/ 3824

4. Restory or retell the individual’s story5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

Narrative researchers differ about the elements to select in the raw data before chronologically sequencing them.

Two approaches regarding these elements are problem solution and three-dimensional space approaches.

/ 3825

Problem solution approach5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >

Characters Setting Problem Actions ResolutionIndividual’s archetype, personality, behaviors, style, and patterns

Context, environment, conditions, place, time, locale, year and era

Question to be answered or phenomena to be described or explained

Movements through the story illustrating character’s thinking, feelings, intentions, actions, and reactions about failed and successful attempts

Answers the question and explains what caused the turning point or the character to change

/ 3826

Problem solution approach5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >

Let’s examine a transcript and then find elements of problem solution approach

/ 3827

Three-dimensional space approach5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >

Interaction Continuity SituationPersonal Social Past Present Future PlaceLook inward to internal conditions, feelings, hopes, aesthetic reactions, moral dispositions

Look outward to existential conditions in the environment with other people and their intentions, purposes, assumptions, and points of view

Look backward to remembered stories and experiences from earlier times

Look at current stories and experiences relating to actions of an event.

Look forward to implied and possible experiences and plot lines

Look at context, time and place situated in a physical landscape or in a setting bounded by characters’ intentions, purposes and different points of view.

/ 3828

5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >

Comparing two approaches

Problem solution approach Three-dimensional space approachFocus is to solve the problem Focus is the experiences and interactions

of the individuals

Researchers use more linear and highly sequenced approach

Researchers use more holistic and broad lens to tell the story by focusing on different elements

The sequence of events is characters, setting and problem, and then actions and resolution

There is no an ideal order in sequencing events

/ 3829


Coding for themes

Chan (2010) divided a Chinese immigrant student’s stories about changes in her cultural identity into four themes. They are:

• Home language conflicting with school language, • School language conflicting with home language, • Parent values conflicting with peer values and • Teacher expectations conflicting with parent

expectations.

The researcher can segment stories into themes or categories.

/ 3830


Coding for themes

Dvir (2015) created three themes to indicate how student teachers with physical disabilities gain professional identity incrementally. They are:

• Past exclusion based on physical difference, • Significant turning point and • Construction of an educational approach to difference.

/ 3831

5. Collaborate with the participant–storyteller5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

This collaboration might involve • Negotiating on how to enter to the research site, • Working closely with the participant to get field texts and • Writing and telling the individual’s story in the researcher’s

words.

Collaboration between the researcher and the participant decreases the potential gap between the narrative told and the narrative reported.

/ 3832

6. Write a story about the participant’s experiences5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

• Restory has a central place in the narrative report.

• Specific themes that derived from the story should be emphasized.

• It is not necessary to write a specific literature section. The literature about the problem might be added to the final sections of the study.

/ 3833

6. Write a story about the participant’s experiences5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

• The setting in which the individual experiences the central phenomenon should be described in detail.

• A section about the importance of narrative research and the procedures involved in it can be written.

• The researcher can use the first-person pronoun to refer to yourself.

/ 3834

7. Validate the accuracy of the report5What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >

Collaboration

Triangulation

Member checking

/ 3835

Narrative Research






CEIT 712

/ 3836

ReferencesChan, E. (2010). Living in the space between participant and researcher as a narrative

inquirer: examining ethnic identity of chinese canadian students as conflicting stories to live by. The journal of Educational Research, 103, 113-122.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.Dvir, N. (2015). Does physical disability affect the construction of professional identity? Narratives of student teachers with physical disabilities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52, 56-65.Fraenkel, J., Wallen, N., & Hyun, H. (2012). How to design and evaluate research in

education (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.Ollerenshaw, J.A. (1998). A study of the impact of a supplemental storytelling (oral

narrative) strategy on fourth grade students’ understanding of the physics of sound. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Ollerenshaw, J. A., & Creswell, J. W. (2002). Narrative research: a comparison of two restorying data analysis approaches. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(3), 329-347.

Webster, L., & Mertowa, P. (2007).Using narrative inquiry as a research method: an introduction to using critical event narrative analysis research on learning and teaching. Oxon: Routledge.

CEIT 712

/ 3837

Narrative ResearchCEIT 712

:)

/ 3838

Narrative ResearchCEIT 712