Volume 8, No. 1, Art. 4 – January 2007

Narrative Inquiry in Educational Research

Bakhtiar Shabani Varaki

1. Introduction

One of the fundamental assumptions of the narrative inquiry is that human beings and stories are intertwined. It is claimed that our very "selves" are "storied" (EAKIN, 1999; MCADAMS, 1997). In other words, stories are the foundation of our identity (HOLSTEIN & GUBRIUM, 1999). SARBIN (1986) expressed a "narratory principle" whereby persons think, feel, act and make moral choices according to narrative structures. ANDREWS (2000, pp.77-78) taking the same position says,

"Stories are not only the way in which we come to ascribe significance to experiences … but also they are one of the primary means through which we constitute our very selves … we become who we are through telling stories about our lives and living the stories we tell." [1]

Therefore, narratives not only help us to organize and make sense of experience through inspiring our lives with meaning, but also they help us to shape a narrative-based identity (WIDDERSHOVEN, 1993). [2]

On the other hand, CRAIB (2000) takes a more skeptical view and argues that selves are always more than what stories can declare. He concerns himself with an idealized view of narratives, and claims that the importance of narrations in self-identity is exaggerated. FROSH (1999) dealt with the same concern from a different way. He is curious about the aspects of the self which cannot be explained within the limits of narrations. He expresses concerns about the post-modern breakdown of self-boundaries and the idea that the self is nothing more than an effect of discourse. [3]

Therefore, there is a conflict among educational researchers concerning the validity of the narrative research as a scientific tool. In this paper, the researcher focuses on the origins of such a problem, and tries to illustrate it through the following steps. First, the nature of the complexity of the narrative inquiry is identified. Second, some theoretical discourses concerning the different orientations of the narrative are provided. Finally, it is summarized and discussed that how narrative can be used as an educational research method. [4]

2. The Nature of the Narrative Inquiry

Narrative inquiry is the process of gathering information through storytelling. CONNELLY and CLANDININ (1990, p.16) noted that: "[h]umans are storytelling organisms who, individually and collectively, lead storied lives. Thus, the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world." [5]

Interviews, letters, autobiographies, and orally told stories are all the tools of the narrative inquiry. For example, a researcher might do a study on the way in which fourth grade girls define their social roles in school. A researcher might look at notes and journal entries. He/she may also interview the girls and spend time observing them. The researcher would then construct her/his own narrative of the study, using such conventions as scene and plot. As CONNELLY and CLANDININ (1990, p.12) stated: "Research is a collaborative document, a mutually constructed story out of the lives of both researcher and participant." [6]

There are a considerable number of issues concerning the nature of the narrative inquiry as a research method. The attraction of narrative studies, for many researchers, lies in its promise to enable us to think about a human being's identity. This is a bi-dimensional identity. Although a human being expresses a unique individuality and agency that makes the subject of the narrative inquiry quite singular, his/her status as a socially situated and culturally fashioned being makes him or her a part of a more or less local or global community. The term "narrative" is a vague term and people perceive it differently. We need to find the way of thinking which enable us to consider narrative method as a primary locus of selfhood. [7]

There are now many distinct orientations towards narrative (e.g., realist, phenomenological, textual), each of which has different implications for our understanding of the connection between selves and stories and of the degree of subjectivity which may involve. It is useful to first identify some of the common characteristics of narrative as described by different researchers. In this paper, the researcher intends to reveal some common assumptions about the nature of narrative and identify the possibilities and limitations of narrative in an educational inquiry. [8]

GERGEN identified six characteristics for narratives. These are:

• A story has a point and the point is completely soaked with its value. Narratives are evaluative frameworks and thus to tell a personal story is to take up a moral position. It is to make a claim for a particular moral dimension for the human life. TAYLOR (1985, p.3) sums up this idea clearly and concisely by saying:

"To be a full human agent, to be a person in the ordinary meaning, is to exist in a space defined by distinctions of worth. Human is a being for whom certain questions of categorical value have arisen and received at least partial answers."

• An understandable story is one in which events are selected to make a given point, more or less reasonable, accessible, and significant. According to GERGEN, narrative demands have ontological consequences.

• The events in a story are typically located in a well-arranged order.

• The characters in the story typically have continuous identities across time.

• The narrative gives an explanation and also suggests or establishes causal linkages that make up the foundations of the story scheme.

• The narrative is enclosed in a frame as a narrative. It uses customs that signal the beginning and the end and create a sense of direction and a perception of purpose. [9]

GERGEN's description of narrative is complemented by three other very important aspects of narratives (DAY SCLATER, 2003). [10]

First, he emphasizes on the moral dimensions of both narrative and the human's life. This view is consistent with TAYLOR's (1989) viewpoint that modern selfhood and morality are inevitably interlaced themes. [11]

Second, GERGEN emphasizes not only the social and cultural dimensions of narrative, but also its inescapable interpersonal nature. Through the inescapable interpersonal nature, the narrative can give an account of that and assume or imagine an audience. It is also more than that, namely to act as an active, interpretive human agent, with others and with the world. This view confirms MAC MURRAY's (1970) viewpoint that individuals are only individuals to the extent that they are individuals in relations. [12]

Third, GERGEN considers individuals as incorporating agents. What makes us a human being is our ability to act deliberately and intentionally in terms of our perceptions of the nature of others. Therefore, GERGEN's static view of narratives is concomitant with a more dynamic view of narratives. [13]

Accordingly, as DAY SCLATER (2003, pp.321-322) specified, thinking of a narrative as a place for subjectivity prompts us to think of narrative as a dynamic practice rather than a static one.

"This practice [narration] is at once uniquely individual, yet social, cultural and interpersonal. It is the practice of active human agents, where those human agents are intentional and embodied, and where their practices have an inevitable moral dimension. Narration is a dynamic signifying practice that is the work of embodied human agents in cultural settings. At times those settings are local, at times more global; the historical, social and geographic contours of our lives, fashion, the language, and discourses that we employ to construct our stories and make claims about our selves." [14]

However, practices are acts of narration and not merely "performances." According to CRAIB, FROSH, HOLLWAY and JEFFERSON (2000) the notion of "performance," for some, implies a degree of superficiality of the self that characterizes those narratives. This is because it is contrasted to an assumed real, a binary, real or performed practice which underlies our thinking, where the real is the privileged of the pair. However, at the same time, a focus on practice/performance implies an open-endedness that leaves room for creative possibilities and for us to conclude that the self is always more than any one narrative can hold. It also directs our thinking towards relationships. And when we focus more closely on relationships, the self/other boundary blurred. It reminds us that we are who we are, not just inside ourselves, but also in relation to others, and those mutual actions with others (real and imagined, present or absent), occur ordinarily on many levels, containing the unconscious (DAY SCLATER, 2003). [15]

3. Narrative Inquiry as a Research Method: From Theory to Practice

The use of the narrative inquiry as a research method will be discussed here and its strengths and weaknesses will be highlighted. Confusion often occurs in the discussion of narrative due to the fact that the term refers to both methodology and to the experience as a subject for studies. To prevent such a problem the researcher ought to use narrative to describe the method of analysis and story in reference to the phenomenon (CONNELLY & CLANDININ, 1990). [16]

Narrative has a long history as a form of research method (CONNELLY & CLANDININ, 1990). It also has been used as a common method of investigation in education as stated by CONNELLY and CLANDININ (1990). The main reason for the implementation of narrative as a form of educational research is that we are storytelling organisms. These, as such, lead storied lives. These storied lives are both individual and social. In studying these stories, a researcher is actually studying the way in which human lives and experiences the world. [17]

This is a critical question regarding the nature of stories and their content. These stories capture more than scores. And mathematical formulas can never uncover the richness and complexity of our experiences as teachers and the complexity of our understandings of what teaching is. Such a thing is the duty of researchers and storytellers. They need to discover the world of the classroom and pass it on to their readers and audiences. [18]

Story also has the ability to accommodate both ambiguity and dilemma as central themes. Teaching involves a vast amount of knowledge and professional expertise. Teachers must be able to use their previous experiences to make decisions. Narrative is an attempt to make the key aspects of this explicit knowledge available to teachers and to those with similar interests. The life of a teacher is highly storied with daily conversations of teaching practices in the sacred staff room. The expression of these stories is an endeavor to make sense of occurrences (and this is also an aim of narrative) and help teachers, students and researchers to make sense of the knowledge and experiences of the classroom. [19]

CLANDININ (1983) has introduced the concept of personal practical knowledge. This term comprises the understanding of the elements involved in teaching. It is personal as the teacher is a specific individual. It is practical in terms of powerful workable thinking and experience. The word of knowledge refers to its epistemological problems. Such a concept can be measured through the use of narrative. [20]

Teachers' classroom knowledge contains a high level of contextual knowledge. The understanding of the contextual knowledge facilitates the interpretation of what teachers say. Little of this knowledge requires articulation in the classroom and as such teachers are not used to articulating such knowledge. In this case, teachers' knowledge is unique, specific and highly valued because it is a way of reconstructing the past combined with intention for the future to handle the present. This type of knowledge, a combination between context and event, is expressed by the stories/narratives. [21]

Some educators believe that the results of such a research have few practical effects. This creates a gap between a research community and a teaching community. Since teachers are uncertain about the proper use of the gathered data, they may not cooperate. Narrative is a way of conducting research where strong ties between the teachers and the researchers are formed and in the process allow for teachers' voices to be heard. The collaborative nature of the research method constitutes a relationship between participants and those researchers that create positive feelings between those who are involved (CONNELLY & CLANDININ, 1990). Such feelings must be extended among the participants too. They need to feel that their participation and contributions are appreciated and used properly by the researchers. [22]

Voice is an important aspect of narrative. There are many voices inside each story including those of narrators, authors, researchers and of critics. If research is to convey the feelings of some teachers the research must contain the teachers' voice. As CONNELLY and CLANDININ (1990) stated narrative is a process by which a researcher puts himself/herself in the story of another individual to magnify the heard voice. Narrative is seen, from such a perspective, as a mutual and collaborative endeavour between a researcher and participant to produce a story which is authentic. It is true that such a collaborative work demands the voice of the researcher too. [23]

4. Issues and Concerns

The issues related to the use of research as a scientific tool, i.e. generalizability, reliability and validity; need to be constantly addressed in some quantitative methods. Researchers in the field of qualitative research have tried to consider such factors in their investigations and quantify them as much as they can. CONNELLY and CLANDININ (1990) illustrate that narrative relies on criteria that are differ from such scientific tools. According to them (1990), inquirers should select and justify the chosen criteria. CONNELLY and CLANDININ (1990) suggest some examples such as verisimilitude and transferability. [24]

In terms of aims, there are differences between narrative and quantitative research and even some qualitative research. It is a mistake to use such criteria from others. COHEN and MANION and MORRISON (2000, p.282) illustrate that "reliability and validity become redundant notions, for every interpersonal situation may be said to be valid." This statement indicates that there are different notions of validity that researchers have a responsibility to investigate. Of course, it is impossible for narrative researchers to ignore the issues of veracity and fallibility. Therefore, we must acknowledge our motivation for telling a story and our attempt in examining the social context in which it is situated. [25]

Narrative analysis is a method for bringing an interpretation to a deeper level of understanding and meaning. The method needs relevance, rigor, and resonance. These help a narrative researcher to provide results that are meaningful to a greater educational research community. The material to be investigated must be relevant to the field and fit within the current research. This does not imply that it must agree with the themes, but it must be able to support interpretations, as any other piece of research must do to survive in the world of international research. Rigor lies in creating a dialogue between researchers and participants (in this situation teachers and students) for making precise reconstructions of the stories/narratives to ensure there were not any considerable misinterpretations of the observations or answers. Resonance is the way in which the story remains in the mind of a reader. In writing the story, an author must make sure that the story is true while providing a fresh way of viewing the world. The story will then be absorbed by the reader and become a part of his/her story. Through identifying ourselves with the protagonist of a story, we are able to experience their life situation, giving a new insight to the human condition (VAN MANEN, 1997). Narrative is not a search for the truth; it is more than an invitation for others to see what I have seen and to share common experiences (CONNELLY & CLANDININ, 1990, 2000). The main purpose of a qualitative researcher is to increase knowledge and not pass judgment (BOGDAN & BIKLEN, 1992). So the bias of a researcher emerges differently than in quantitative studies. The researcher would rather show signs of bias in an attempt to show the life experience in more detail and not isolating each piece of data to a score to be subjected to analysis. [26]

The researcher-participant relationship is a mutually interactive phenomenon. Both the researcher and the participant have effect on each other (BEGAN & BIKLER, 1992). [27]

A researcher must ensure that there is a strong, positive, and trustworthy feeling between him/her and the research participants. The participants also need to be aware and can be certain that they can withdraw from research at any time regardless of the stage of the research. In a narrative research, the aim of the researcher is to improve the understanding of phenomena. For example, the aim of an educational researcher is to improve the experiences which occur at schools. This cannot be done if students are placed in a frightening and bearing environment. As stated by BORONE (1992, p.143):

"An honest storyteller is a soldier in the struggle against personal alienation. The researcher must reflect on this idea as they see it occurring but must also ensure that the voices of the participants be heard if he/she wishes to claim the telling of stories is, in fact, research. Narrative is a method of teacher development where 'reflection through narrative effectively doubles the value of the original experience'." [28]

Narrative gives participants opportunities to reflect their own side/s of the story. According to VAN MANEN (1997, p.70)

"… story is significant for human science as story: 'provides us with possible human experiences ... that we would not normally experience ... in a personal way' so that we may reflect on our life as lived. Verbalizing a story is as important as reading about it." [29]

Some researchers believe that it could be difficult to break through the secret world of a classroom. Although the classroom is generally a safe place for teachers to work, the stories of their practices are secret ones (CONNELLY & CLANDININ, 1996). [30]

As suggested by CLANDININ and CONNELLY (1988), the clarity of purpose and openness may solve this problem. It creates an environment in which participants feel encouraged in participating and being part of the research team. Such an environment is vital for applying narrative methodology. This is also linked in a way to the interpretation of the text. The author of the text, whether written or spoken, must be given the chance to review and correct what has been recorded. It is essential to remove all misunderstandings and come up with mutual agreement on the content of the produced materials. The participants should be given information regarding the research subject at all stages of the study including the final products. The research must involve anonymity for all participants. This requires the use of pseudonyms for the participants and the participating schools. Taking pictures and using them need explicit permission from the participants involved in such photographs. [31]

5. Conclusion

The links between story and human life were investigated to have a better understanding of how to theorize a narrative. Special attention was paid to the subjectivity issues that might be attached to narrative method. Narrative was defined as an explanation of an event, the arrangement of its elements on a time line/sequential arrangement, interpreting the arranged data, and making conclusion. The conclusion may be explicit, but most of the time is implicit. Such understanding of narrative is really all around us, and, in the words of communications, human being can be understood as "homo narrans." There are many different interpretation of narrative. All these perspectives share some key concepts including "value-laden ontological consequences," "explanation," "corrective excesses," "revisiting the past," "crisis of representation," "author place in the text," "crisis for legitimation," "verisimilitude," and a renewed concern with "voice" (DENZIN & GUBA, 1994, pp.575-580). [32]

Narrative is a piece of writing which is different from the traditional research reports as well as from the traditional qualitative or interpretative research reports (FENSTERMACHER & RICHARDSON, 1994, p.52). [33]

Second, narrative is a form of inquiry both in defining the unit of analysis and finding a story in the data (DAVIS, 1974). Hence, narrative is used as a research method which provides an interpretation for deeper level of understanding. Narrative researchers use relevance, rigor, and resonance to provide the result which is meaningful to the greater educational community. The main purpose of the narrative researchers is to increase knowledge and not pass judgment. Therefore, the issue of biasness in narrative research occurs differently than in quantitative research methodology (BOGDAN & BIKLEN, 1992). [34]

However, humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives. The study of narrative research methodology is the study of the ways humans experience the world. This general notion translates into the view that education is the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories showing that teachers and learners are storytellers and characters in their own and other's stories' (CONNELLY & CLANDININ, 1990). [35]

Much of what we "know" in education comes from telling each other stories of educational experience. Narrative inquiry seeks to critically analyze the stories we tell, hear, and read in the course of our work in the forms of children's stories, teachers' stories, student teachers' stories, and our own stories. [36]

References

Andrews, Molly (2000). Introduction to narrative and life history. In Molly Andrews, Shelley Day Sclater & Corinne Squire (Eds.), Lines of narrative: psychosocial perspectives (pp.77-80). London: Routledge.

Bogdan, Robert C.& Biklen, Sari Knopp (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods (2nd. ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Bruner, Jerome (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press.

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

Cohen, Louis; Manion, Lawrence & Morrison, Keith (2000). Research methods in education. London: Routledge.

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

Craib, Ian (2000). Narratives as bad faith. In Molly Andrews, Shelley Day Sclater & Corinne Squire (Eds.), Lines of narrative: Psychosocial perspectives (pp.64-74). London: Routledge.

Davis, Fred (1974). Stories and sociology. Urban Life and Culture, 3(3), 310-314.

Day Sclater, Shelley (2003). What is the subject? Narrative Inquiry, 13(2), 317-330.

Denzin, Norman K. & Guba, Egon G. (Eds.) (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. London: Sage.

Eakin, Paul John (1999). How our lives become stories: Making selves. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Fenstermacher, Gary. D. & Richardson, Virginia (1994). Promoting confusion in educational psychology: how is it done? Educational Psychology, 29(1), 49-55.

Frosh, Stephen (1999). What is outside discourse? Psychoanalytic Studies, 1(4), 381-390.

Gergen, Kenneth J. (2002). Narrative, moral identity and historical consciousness: A social constructionist account. Available at: http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/kgergen1/text3.HTML [Accessed: November 14, 2004].

Mac Murray, John (1970). Persons in relation. London: Faber.

McAdams, Dan P. & McAdams, Dan P. (1993/1997). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. London: Guilford Press.

Sarbin, Theodore R. (Ed.) (1986). Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct. London: Praeger.

Taylor, Charles (1985). Philosophy and the human sciences (Philosophical papers 11). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Taylor, Charles (1989). Sources of the self: The making of modern identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Van Manen, Max (1997). From meaning to method. Qualitative Health Research, 7(3), 345-369.

Widdershoven, Guy (1993). Hermeneutic perspectives on the relationship between narrative and life history. In Ruthellen Josselson & Amia Lieblich (Eds.), The narrative study of lives (vol.1, pp.1-20. London: Sage.

Author

Dr. Bakhtiar SHABANI VARAKI was at the Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education (OISE/UT) as a Visiting Scholar from Sept. 2002 to Nov. 2003. His main and current research interests focus on the philosophy of education, methodology and research and teaching methods. He is a member of the International Network of Philosophers of Education. He has published several books and articles in English and Farsi. He also presented papers on scholarly international conferences. And currently he is at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, the capital city of the Khorasan province of the I.R. of Iran, as Dean of Faculty of Education and Psychology.

Contact:

Bakhtiar Shabani Varaki (Ph.D.)

Associate Professor and Dean, Faculty of education and psychology
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
Mashhad, Iran
P.O.Box: 9177948991-1518

Tel.: +98-511-8783008
Fax: +98-511-8783012

E-mail: bshabani@ferdowsi.um.ac.ir
URL: http://www.um.ac.ir/~bshabani/

Citation

Please cite this article as follows (and include paragraph numbers if necessary):

Shabani Varaki, Bakhtiar (2007, December). Narrative Inquiry in Educational Research [36 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-line Journal], 8(1), Art. 4. Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-07/07-1-4-e.htm [Date of Access: Month Day, Year].

Volume 8, No. 1   Table of Contents

[qualitative-research.net] [Home] [Inside FQS] [Features] [Services] [Submission]
[FAQ] [Advertising] [Search FQS] [Newsletter] [Editorial Team]

© 2006-2007 Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
(ISSN 1438-5627)

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft