Educational Research

Chapter 16
Narrative Research

Gay, Mills, and Airasian

Topics Discussed in this Chapter
 The definition and purpose of narrative
research
 The narrative research process
 The types of narrative research
 Key characteristics of narrative research
designs
 Narrative research data collection
techniques
Definition and Purpose
 Narrative research
 Definition
 The description of the lives of individuals, the collection
of individuals’ stories of their experiences, and a
discussion of the meaning of those experiences
 Purpose
 An attempt to increase understanding of central issues
related to teaching and learning through the telling and
retelling of participants’ stories

Objectives 1.1 and 1.2

Definition and Purpose
 Narrative research
 Reasons for its popularity
 The increased emphasis on teacher reflection, teacher
research, action research, and self-study
 The increased emphasis placed on teacher knowledge,
professional development, and decision-making
 The increased emphasis on empowering teacher voices
in the educational research process through collaborative
educational research efforts
Objective 1.3
The Narrative Research Process
 Eight basic steps
 Identify the purpose of the study and identify the
phenomenon being explored
 Select an individual in order to learn about the
phenomenon
 Pose initial narrative research questions
 Describe the researcher’s role
 Entry into the research site
 Reciprocity
 Ethics
Objective 2.1
The Narrative Research Process

 Eight basic steps (continued)

 Describe the data collection methods with
particular attention to active interviewing
 Describe appropriate strategies for the analysis
and interpretation of data
 Collaborate with the participant to construct the
narrative and to validate the accuracy of the story
 Complete the writing of the narrative account
Objective 2.1
The Narrative Research Process
 Similarity to the steps discussed for all other research
designs
 An interactive, personal, collaborative process
characterized by a caring, trusting relationship
between the researcher and participant
 The researcher’s intent is to empower the participant to tell
his or her story
 The participant must have equal voice in the relationship
 The researcher must actively listen to the participant’s story
before contributing his or her own perspective

Objectives 2.2 and 2.3

Types of Narrative Research

Autobiographies Biographies Life Writing

Personal Accounts Personal Narratives Narrative Interviews

Life Stories and

Personal Documents Documents of Life
Histories

Ethnohistories Ethnobiographies Autoethnographies

Person-centered
Ethnopsychologies Popular Memories
Ethnographies

Objective 3.1
Types of Narrative Research
 Five characteristics on which the type of
narrative research is categorized
 Who authors the account
 The researcher, the participant, or both
 The scope of the narrative
 An entire life or a single episode
 Who provides the “story”
 Teachers, students, parents, friends, etc.

Objective 3.2
Types of Narrative Research
 Five characteristics (continued)
 The theoretical and/or conceptual
framework that has influenced the study
 For example, critical or feminist theory
 Whether or not all of these elements are
included in the one narrative
 The influence of the disciplines in which
each of these characteristics are
embedded
Objective 3.2
Characteristics of Narrative Research
 Six key characteristics
 Focus on the experiences of individuals
 Concerned with the chronology of an
individual’s experiences
 Focus on the construction of life stories
based on data collected through active
interviews
 Active interviewing emphasizes the
collaborative construction of the story
Objective 4.1
Characteristics of Narrative Research
 Six key characteristics (continued)
 Uses restorying as a technique for
constructing the narrative account
 Incorporates context and place in the story
 Reflects a collaborative approach that
involves the researcher and the participant
in the negotiation of the final text

Objective 4.1
Characteristics of Narrative Research
 Sources of data
 Participant’s recollections of events or experiences
 Secondary sources such as the participant’s
journal entries, artifacts, etc.
 The nature of these sources implies the researcher
must interact at a very personal level with the
participant to collect data
 The need for a relationship based on trust, caring,
respect, and equality to facilitate collecting data as well
as analyzing and interpreting it
Objective 4.2
Narrative Research Techniques
 Empirical data is central to narrative
research
 The interpretive nature of narrative
research presents concerns for credibility
of the study
 Implies the use of multiple data sources,
triangulation, and collaborative negotiation
of the written account
Objective 5.1
Narrative Research Techniques
 Six data collection techniques
 Restorying
 Oral history
 Memorabilia
 Story telling
 Letter writing
 Autobiographical and biographical writing
Objective 5.2
Narrative Research Techniques
 Two perspectives on data collection, analysis, and
interpretation
 Narrative analysis
 The kind of narrative that is constructed by the researcher who
has collected descriptions of events through interviews and
observations and synthesized them into stories or narratives
 The story is the outcome
 Analysis of narratives
 The process whereby the researcher collects stories as data
and analyzes them into a set of themes that hold across all of
the stories
 The themes are the outcomes
 The text focuses on the first of these perspectives
Objective 5.3
Narrative Research Techniques
 Restorying
 The process in which the researcher gathers stories;
analyzes them for key elements of the story such as the
time, place, or plot; and rewrites the story to place it in a
chronological sequence
 Four stages
 The researcher conducts the interview and transcribes the data
 The researcher re-transcribes the data based on the key
elements that are identified in the story
 The researcher organizes the story chronologically
 The participant is asked to collaborate with the researcher to
write the final “restoried” narrative.
 A major advantage is that the restoried account is likely to
represent the individual’s lived experiences
Objective 5.4
Narrative Research Techniques
 Oral history
 A method for collecting data from
participants by asking them to share their
experiences
 Two ways to develop oral histories
 Interviews using structured or unstructured
protocols
 Annals and chronicles
 The participant constructs a timeline and divides it
into segments of significant events or memories
Objective 5.5
Narrative Research Techniques

 Memorabilia
 Photos, personal objects, newspaper articles, artifacts, etc.
 Such memorabilia can be used by the researcher as prompts
to elicit details about the participant’s life
 Story telling
 Telling stories should become a normative part of the data
collection process
 The use of many stories can provide researchers with many
opportunities to add to their understanding of the
participant’s experiences
Objectives 5.6 and 5.7
Narrative Research Techniques

 Letter writing
 Engaging the researcher and participant in a
dialogue
 Facilitated by the use of e-mail
 Provides valuable insights into the evolving,
tentative interpretations the participant is
considering
 Allows the researcher and participant to reflect on
the evolution of the themes
Objective 5.8
Narrative Research Techniques
 Autobiographical and biographical writing
 Engaging the participants in writing about their
perceptions of their experiences
 Has the potential to broaden the researcher’s
understanding of past events and experiences that
have impacted the participant’s experiences
 Other narrative data sources
 Documents such as lesson plans, newsletters, etc.
 Teaching portfolios
 Personal philosophies
Objective 5.9
Narrative Research Techniques

 Writing the narrative

 The final step in the narrative research process
 The data collected throughout the study finds its
way into the final written account
 The collaboration between the researcher and
participant becomes critical at this point

Objective 5.10