or at least Karen E. Johnson’s version of it… Narrative Analysis or at least Karen E. Johnson’s version of it…

Narratives: Experience & Continuity Dewey (1938) Experience - both personal and social (and both are always present) “People are individuals and need to be understood as such, but they can not be understood only as individuals. They are always in relation, always in a social context.” Continuity - experiences grow out of other experiences, and experiences lead to further experiences “Whenever one positions oneself in that continuum-the imagined now, some imagined past, or some imagined future- each point has a past experiential base and leads to an experiential future.”

Narrative Mode of Thought Bruner (1986, 1990) Humans understand the world in two very different ways: Paradigmatic mode of thought - seek to comprehend experiences in terms of tightly reasoned analysis, logical proof, and empirical observation Narrative mode of thought - concerned with human wants, needs, and goals all of which are embedded in human interaction and organized in time Narratives do not represent an external version of some internal mental entity- rather narratives are a mode of representation of human experience The social context in which the narrative is related, the narrator’s reason for telling it, the narrator’s narrative competence, and the nature of the audience are all important elements in developing an understanding of the narrative. Agency is inherent in narratives - the storyteller constructs his/her story based on choices. These choices include determining which story events to disclose to the audience, how to order those events, and whether to edit or enhance the story based on the audience.

A Narrative Epistemological Stance Sleeter, 1999 & Doyle, 1977 Narratives by their very nature are not meant to describe phenomena objectively, but rather to connect phenomena and infuse them with interpretation. Narratives situate and relate facts to one another, and the essence of “truth” is how phenomena are connected and interpreted. Narratives are holistic and cannot be reduced to isolated facts without losing the “truth” that is being conveyed. Since narratives are social, relational, and culturally bound, they gain their meaning from our collective social histories and cannot be separated from the sociocultural and sociohistorical contexts from which they emerged. Instead they are deeply embedded in sociohistorical discourses (Gee, 1999) and thus represent a socially mediated view of experience.

Narrative Analysis: Interpretation & Reinterpretation Polkinghorne (1983) Sarbin (1986) 2 types of narratives: Narratives of description – used to create meaning from events in our lives Narratives of explanation – move beyond meaning and explore causes of life events and their connections with one another Narratives help us interpret the world – narratives constitute a practical, but also a highly selective, perspective with which we look at the world around us. Cultures maintain their stock of narratives to communicate and conserve shared meanings. To participate in a culture is to know and use a range of accumulated and shared meanings. These shared meanings are not static but are in constant revision.

Narrative Inquiry in Educational Research Clandinin & Connelly (2000) Generally structured in chronological fashion, teachers, within an ever changing present, try to interpret a series of experiences, to reconcile what is known with that which is hidden, and to construct and reconstruct understandings of themselves as teachers and of their teaching with an eye to the future. Narratives, or the “storying” and “restorying” of a person’s life, are “a fundamental method of personal (and social) growth. Storying and restorying one’s life enables a teacher to create new meanings from systematic inquiry and reflection. These stories enable readers to envision their own stories and to consider how they might apply lessons learned from another teacher’s narrative.

Narrative Analysis: Structural Labov (1972, 1997) Structural types of narrative clauses Abstract and orientation – how the speaker defines/positions him/herself and the context in which the event(s) takes place (time, place, participants, initial behavior) Complicating actions – how an event or set of events emerges (sequentially) and how an event or set of events is constructed and/or understood Evaluation – what are the consequences of the event or set of events on the speaker or audience or ‘an other’ (sometimes evaluated in term of other events) Result or resolution – how the complicating actions are resolved and what resources were accessed to help resolve them Coda – how the speaker, if at all, transforms his/her activities in the future or what was learned by the event or set of events

Narrative Analysis: Thematic / Content Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Spradley, 1979; Bogdan & Biklen, 2007 - coding of data into categories perceived as relevant Iterative – ‘zigzag’ (vs. orderly) patterns – move back & forth between data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation – stops at the point of ‘saturation’ Emergent – open, fluid, developing, evolving, responds flexibly to new details/events Interpretative – researcher’s subjective interpretation of the data based on immersion in the field (participants conceptual & contextual world) grounded – themes/patterns emerge from the data a prioir – focus of analysis imposed on the data Ethnographic semantics – focus on the meanings that people give to their verbal expressions - categories often expressed via participants’ wording

Hypothetical Research Questions How does Suzanne understand the experience of designing and teaching an ESL class on volunteerism? How does Judy make sense of the academic concepts of subject position and subjectivity? What are the factors (events, people, ideas) that shape Sandra’s experiences of becoming a language teacher? What are the factors (events, people, ideas) that shape Kate’s experiences of becoming a language teacher?

The Mechanics – a robust interpretation is one founded on strong or recurrent patterns of empirical evidence Read through the data multiple times Break up data by idea units Account for all of the data Identity key ideas, themes, patterns Underline words, phrases that signal the subjects’ understandings and/or interpretations Look for evidence of voice or multiple voices Name the key ideas, themes, patterns Group or categorize the key ideas, themes, patterns Find relationships among and/or between groups or categories - superior/subordinate relationships – something seems to cause or direct something else - co-occurring relationship- one topic occurs often in the data in proximity to or in relationship with another topic - recursive relationships – one thing precedes or follows another, which preceded or follows another, and connects back to itself Display/describe both the categories and their relationships

Narrative as a mediational tool Johnson & Golombek (2011, 2016) SLTE - narrative functions as a vehicle for inquiry - intended to ‘push’ development Central Question: What are the cognitive processes that are ignited as a result of engagement in narrative activity? Narrative as Externalization - brings experiences to conscious awareness, lays thinking open to social influence, a means toward self-regulation Narrative as Verbalization - to regulate thinking, thinking in concepts, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, use concepts to make sense of experience and to regulate both thinking and activity Narrative as Systematic Examination - narrative activities are framed by a priori procedures or parameters, what is learned will be shaped by how it is learned

Narrative Analysis: References Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bogdan, R., & Biklin, S.K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. (2nd edition). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Carter, C. (1993). The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education. Educational Researcher, 22 (1), 5-12 18. Clandinin, D. J. & Connelly, F. M. (2000) Narrative inquiry: experience and story in qualitative research (San Francisco, CA, Jossey Bass Publishers). Clandinin, D. J. & Connelly, F. M. (1991) Narrative and story in practice and research, in: D. Schon (Ed.) The reflective turn: case studies in and on educational practice (New York, Teachers College Press). Cizek, G. R. (1999) Narrative and neopragmatism in teacher education and research, in: J. Rath & A. McAninch (Eds) What counts as knowledge in teacher education? (Stamford, CT, Ablex Publishing Corporation). Davies, B., & Harre, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20(1), 43-63. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books. Elbaz, F. (1983) Teacher thinking: a study of practical knowledge (London, Croon Helm).

Narrative Analysis: References Elbaz, F. (1991) Research on teachers’ knowledge: The evolution of a discourse, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23, 1–19. Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine. Goetz, J., & LeCompte, M. (1981). Ethnographic research and the problem of data reduction. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 12, 51-70. Labov, W. (1972). Language of the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Labov, W. (1997). Some further steps in narrative analysis. Journal of Narrative and Life Story, 7, 395-415. Polkinghorne, D. (1983). Methodology for the Human Sciences: Systems of Inquiry. Albany, NY: State University of new York Press. Robinson, J. A. & Hawpe, L. (1986) Thinking as a heuristic process, in: T. R. Sarbin (Ed.) Narrative psychology: the storied nature of human conduct (New York, Praeger). Sarbin, T. R. (1986). The narrative as a root metaphor for psychology. In Sarbin, T.R. (Ed)., Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct. (pp. 3-21). New York: Praeger. Spradley, J. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston. Witherall, C. & Noddings, N. (Eds) (1991) Stories lives tell: narrative and dialogue in education (New York, Teachers College Press).