Book chapter on Narrative Inquiry
I’ve just been sent more material from the library - a book chapter by Connelly and Clandinin (1999). This piece seems to be more instructional in tone and gives practical advice for doing Narrative Inquiry.
The authors stress (as in other chapters I have read) that the researcher must negotiate his or her relationship with the field being studied. Any point on the scale between neutral observer to active participant is possible. Much thought must be devoted to how experience will be interpreted and represented.
The chapter describes different methods for transforming field texts into research texts. A helpful point is that research texts must be written with an audience of practitioners or researchers in mind.
Field Texts: (p.135)
These are written representations of field events written by the researcher or a participant.
Methods for constructing field texts described in the chapter:
- oral history
- stories
- annals and chronicles
- photographs, memory boxes…
- research interviews*
- journals*
- autobiographical and biographical writing*
- letters*
- conversations (inc. letter writing)*
- Field notes and other stories from the field
- document analysis
* methods which may be relevant in my study.
The complex transition from field texts to research texts is discussed. The authors describe it as “the construction of a series of increasingly interpretive writings” (p. 138). These texts must display a distance from the field and the participants. “They are written in response to questions about meaning and significance” (p. 138). The role of the researcher and his or her relationship to the inquiry must be presented explicitly in the final paper. Research of this kind which lacks “autobiographical presence…lacks validity” (p. 138).
According to Connelly and Clandinin (1999) two elements are crucial in the creation of research texts in narrative inquiry:
- voice – stating opinions, presenting a position, personal viewpoint… The researcher must find the right balance between bias and objectivity. “The dilemma for a researcher is to establish a voice that simultaneously represents participants’ field experience while creating a research text that goes beyond the field and its field texts to speak to an audience” (p. 138).
- signature -“writing style that makes it possible to identify a text as an author’s work” (p. 138). The authors suggest modelling your writing on that of a researcher you admire until you develop your own signature.
Another decision for the researcher to make is what kind of text the research text will be:
- descriptive
- expositional
- argumentative
- narrative
4 kinds of research texts - based on Chatman (1990) as cited in Connelly and Clandinin (1999).
Connelly F. M. & Clandinin, D. J. (1999). Narrative inquiry. In J. P. Keeves, & G. Lakomski (Eds.), Issues in educational research (pp. 132-140). Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
