"Small Stories" as Methodological Approach: Reflections on Biographical Narratives Based on an Ethnographic Research Project With Refugee Students

Abstract

Based on a research project with refugee students, in this article we present three forms of "small" biographical narratives that can be used as a methodological approach instead of the biographical-narrative interview: The first form, guided narratives with low-threshold narrative impulses allow for the articulation of biographical experiences and multiple ways of participating. The other two forms are based on ethnographic observations: In contact with the research team, it "happened" that the students casually told small stories giving insight into their biographical situation and their everyday life, similar to what they do in interaction with their teachers. The teachers in turn told the researchers stories about stories they had heard from the young people. The precondition for these narrations was an extended ethnographic field phase, during which the research relationships in the field could be established successively. The researchers became involved in the everyday narrative practices of the pedagogical field and were able to gain insights into their function. A main result is to analyze biographical narrative not only as an outcome of an individual structure of experience, but also as an interactive work of belonging, which is particularly relevant in schools. Finally, research with "small stories" is particularly indicated when the vulnerability of the research participants (e.g., young refugees) is high, the institutional setting (e.g., school) hinders/impedes free biographical narrating, or when the preconditions for articulating one's own perspective in a field are very unequally distributed (e.g., multilingualism).