1. Narrative Research Designs
Chapter 16
Narrative Research Designs
Power Point slides by Ronald J. Shope in collaboration with John W. Creswell

2. Educational Research 2e: Creswell
Key Ideas
Narrative research and when to use it
Types of narrative designs
Key characteristics of narrative designs
Potential issues in gathering data
Steps in conducting a narrative study
Evaluating narrative research
Collect information about the lives of individuals, collect & tell stories about those lives, and write narratives of those experiences
Usually focuses on an individual whose life, in some way, brings meaning and understanding to some educational issue (Marvin)
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

3. What is narrative research?
In narrative research, researchers describe the lives of individuals, collect and tell stories about people’s lives, and write narratives of individual experiences. As a distinct form of qualitative research, a narrative typically 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.
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

4. How do you use narrative designs?
When individuals are willing to tell their stories
Want to report personal experiences in a particular setting
Want a close bond with participants
When participants want to process their stories
When you have a chronology of events
When you want to write in a literary way and develop the micro picture
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

5. Types of narrative designs: Questions to ask
Who writes or records the story?( e.g., Biography; Autobiography)
How much of a life is recorded or presented? (e.g., Life History; Personal Experience Story)
Who provides the story?
Is a theoretical lens being used? (Ideology that provides structure)
When can narrative forms be combined? (e.g., Biography and Personal Account)
Biography – resesarcher writes anotehr person’s story
Often done from archives and records
Can be autobiographical although less common
Can focus on entire life or on a single or multiple episodes – often is on some turning point or important event in life
Could focus on teachers’ stories or stories of students (Matt)
There can be a frame of reference (Marvin – changes in special education over time & rise of empowerment) (Matt – spiritual view of teaching and life)
Different types could be combined (e.g., Matt – could combine personal accounts by teachers, autobiography, & frame of reference)
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

6. Key characteristics of narrative designs
Individual experiences
Chronology of the experiences
Collecting individual stories
Restorying
Coding for themes
Context or setting
Collaboration with participants
See Table 16.1 on page 478
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

7. Key characteristics: Individual experiences
Single individual
Interested in exploring the experiences of that individual
Often focuses on single individual
Includes both personal and social aspects of the experiences (own reality and interactions with others)
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

8. Key characteristics: Chronology of experiences
Researcher analyzes and writes about an individual life using a time sequence or chronology of events
Researcher orders these events in a way that makes sense to a reader
Chronology helps to provide context and to make sense to the reader
Matt – could discuss personal conversion up to present day & possible future aspirations
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

9. Key characteristics Collecting individual stories
A story in narrative research is a first‑person oral telling or retelling of an individual
Stories have a beginning, middle, and end
Involve a predicament, conflict, or struggle; a protagonist or character; and a sequence with implied causality (a plot) during which the predicament is resolved in some fashion
Like a novel, stories have time, place, plot, and scene
Varied sources of data comprise the data base
Field texts are used which can include a variety of informational sources such as interview, discussin, conversations, archives,
Journals can be very useful in this type of research
Use of photos or memorabilia can aid in eliciting stories
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

10. Key characteristics: Restorying
Restories the individual stories
researcher gathers stories and analyzes them for elements of the story
researcher rewrites the story to place it in a chronological sequence
restorying provides a causal link among ideas
information would include interaction, continuity, and situation
See Table 16.2 on page 481
Provides context and understandability to the reader as our own stories may be disjointed chronologically & thematically
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

11. Key characteristics: Coding for themes
Themes provide the complexity of the story
Themes add depth to the insight about understanding an individual’s experiences
Themes can be incorporated into the passage retelling the individual’s experience or as a separate section of the study
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

12. Key characteristics: Context or setting
Describes the context or setting for the individual stories:
includes the people involved in the story
includes the physical setting
setting may be described before events or actions, or can be woven throughout the study
Can be a physical place (school) or a social situation (5th grade team of teachers)
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

13. Key characteristics: Collaboration with participants
Collaboration: inquirer actively involves the participant in the inquiry as it unfolds
Strategies
Negotiating relationships
Involving participants in the process of research
Negotiating transitions in the research process
Takes time to develop – trust is important
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

14. Potential issues in narrative research
Story authentic? (“Faking the data” possible)
Is the story “real?” (Participants may not be able to tell the “real story”)
Who “owns” the story? (Does the researcher have permission to share it?)
Is participant’s voice lost?
Does the researcher gain at the expense of the participant?
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

15. Steps in narrative research
Build in past,
Present, future
Build in place
or setting
Describe their
story
Analyze story
for
themes
Have them
Tell story
Collect other
Field texts
Restory or retell
The individual’s
story
Collaborate with
participant storyteller in
all phases of research
Collect stories from
the individual that
Reflect personal experience 5 3 4
Purposefully select an
individual to learn
about the phenomenon
Write a story about the
participant’s personal
and social experiences 2 6
Identify a phenomenon
that addresses
an educational problem
Validate the accuracy of
the report 1 7
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

16. Evaluating narrative research
Does the researcher focus on individual experiences?
Is there a focus on a single individual or a few individuals?
Did the researcher collect the story of an individual’s experience?
Was there a restorying by the researcher of the participant’s story?
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

17. Evaluating narrative research
In the restorying, was the participant’s voice as well as the researcher’s voice heard?
Did the researcher identify themes that emerged from the story?
Did the story include information about place or setting of the individual?
Educational Research 2e: Creswell

18. Evaluating narrative research
Did the story have a temporal, chronological sequence including the past, present and future?
Is there evidence that the researcher collaborated with the participant?
Does the story adequately address the purpose and questions of the researcher?
Educational Research 2e: Creswell