| Contents |
Why narrative? Introduction -- John Dewey -- Mark Johnson and Alasdair MacIntyre -- New ways of thinking: the contribution of inquiry -- Clifford Geertz, After the fact: two countries, four decades, one anthropologist -- Mary Catherine Bateson, Peripheral visions: learning along the way -- Barbara Czarniawska, Narrating the organization: dramas of institutional identity -- Robert Coles, The call of stories: teaching and the moral imagination -- Donald Polkinghorne, Narrative knowing and the human sciences -- Bringing these humans to narrative inquiry -- Why the turn to narrative? -- Coming to research naturally -- Thinking narratively: a case at the boundaries. Introduction -- Bloom's taxonomy -- Working with the taxonomy team -- Responses to a narrative revision -- Inquiry life at the boundaries. Temporality ; People ; Action ; Certainty ; Context -- Summary -- Thinking narratively: reductionistic and formalistic boundaries. Introduction -- The ideas of Schon, Oakeshott, and Johnson -- Narrative thinking at the formalistic boundary -- Inquiry life at the formalistic boundary. The place of theory ; The balance of theory ; People ; The place of the researcher -- Summary -- What do narrative inquirers do? Introduction -- Narrative inquiry teams and narrative inquiry spaces -- A story of working in a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space with Ming Fang He -- Three-dimensional narrative inquiry space -- A story of working in a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space with Karen Whelan -- A reflective note -- Being in the field: walking into the midst of stories. Introduction -- Beginning in the midst -- Beginning in the midst at Bay Street School -- Being in the midst is different for everyone -- Living, telling, retelling, and reliving stories -- What do we do now that we are in the field? Negotiating relationships ; Negotiating purposes ; Negotiating transitions ; Negotiating a way to be useful ; Getting a feel for it -- Living life on the landscape -- From field to field texts: being in a place of stories. Introduction -- Falling in love, slipping to cool observation -- Remembering an outline, slipping into detail -- Narrative truth and narrative relativism -- Turning inward, watching outward -- The ambiguity of working in a three-dimensional inquiry space -- Composing field texts. Introduction -- Composing field texts is an interpretive process -- Writing field texts expresses the relationship of researcher to participant -- Field texts in a three-dimensional inquiry space -- Interwoven field texts -- Teacher stories as field text -- Autobiographical writing as field text -- Journal writing as field text -- Field notes as field text -- Letters as field text -- Conversation as field text -- Research interview as field text -- Family stories and stories of families as field text -- Documents as field text -- Photographs, memory boxes, and other personal-family-social artifacts as field text -- Life experience as a source of field texts -- What is important for inquirers to know about field texts? -- From field texts to research texts: making meaning of experience. Introduction -- What do narrative inquirers do? -- Justification (why?) -- Phenomena (what?) -- Method (how?). Theoretical considerations ; Practical field text-oriented considerations ; Interpretive-analytic considerations -- Theory and literature -- Kind of text intended -- Composing research texts. Introduction -- Experiencing tensions as writing begins -- Writing research texts at the boundaries. Writing research texts at the formalistic boundary ; Writing research texts at the reductionistic boundary -- Writing, memory, and research texts -- Writing research texts in the midst of uncertainty. Voice ; Signature ; Audience ; Tensions among voice, signature, and audience -- Narrative form. Narrative form in He's dissertation ; Narrative form in Rose's dissertation -- Searching for narrative form. Reading other narrative dissertations and books ; Looking for metaphor ; Noticing reading preferences ; Experimenting with form ; Maintaining a sense of work in progress -- Audience and the composition of research texts -- Persistent concerns in narrative inquiry. Introduction -- Ethics -- Ethics and anonymity -- Ownership and relational responsibilities -- How we are storied as researchers -- Facts and fiction -- Risks, dangers, and abuses: "I, the critic" -- Wakefulness. |
| Abstract |
Understanding experience as lived and told stories--also known as narrative inquiry--has gained popularity and credence in qualitative research. Unlike more traditional methods, narrative inquiry successfully captures personal and human dimensions that cannot be quantified into dry facts and numerical data. In this definitive guide, the authors draw from more than twenty years of field experience to show how narrative inquiry can be used in educational and social science research. Tracing the origins of narrative inquiry in the social sciences, they offer new and practical ideas for conducting fieldwork, composing field notes, and conveying research results. Throughout the book, stories and examples reveal a wide range of narrative methods. Engaging and easy to read, this book is a practical resource from experts who have long pioneered the use of narrative in qualitative research. |
