Narrative research

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NARRATIVE RESEARCH
CEIT 712: Qualitative Research in Instructional Technology: Theory and Applications

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Narrative Research
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1. What is narrative research?
2. What are the types of narrative designs?
3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?
5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?
CEIT 712

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What is narrative research?
A study of individuals’ life
experiences told to researchers
or obtained in documents and
archival material
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What is narrative research?
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It 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.
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What is narrative research?
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HistoryLiterature
Human
Sciences
Anthropology
SociologySociolinguistics
Education

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What is narrative research?
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Narrative
Research
in
Education
Emphasis on
teachers’
reflection
Emphasis on
teachers’
knowledge
Bringing
teachers’
voices to the
forefront

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Narrative Research
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1. What is narrative research?
2. What are the types of narrative designs?
3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?
5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?
CEIT 712

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What are the types of narrative designs?
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• Who writes or records the story?
• How much of a life is recorded and presented?
• Who provides the story?
• Is a theoretical lens being used?
• Can narrative forms be combined?

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Who writes or records the story?
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What are the types of narrative designs? >
Biography vs.Autobiography

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How much of a life is recorded and presented?
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What are the types of narrative designs? >
Life history vs.Personal experiences

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Who provides the story?
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What are the types of narrative designs? >
Children
Teacher
Administrator
Other
educational personnel

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Is a theoretical lens being used?
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What are the types of narrative designs? >
A theoretical lens in narrative research is a guiding perspective or
ideology that provides structure for advocating groups or individuals in
the written report.
The narrative researcher provides a voice in particular for marginalized
individuals in the research.

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Can narrative forms be combined?
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What are the types of narrative designs? >
Biography
Personal
story
Teacher’s
story
Feministic
perspective
Narrative
study

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Narrative Research
14
1. What is narrative research?
2. What are the types of narrative designs?
3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?
5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?
CEIT 712

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What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
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• Individual experiences
• Collecting individual stories
• Chronology of the experiences
• Restorying
• Coding for themes
• Context or setting
• Collaborating with participants

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Narrative Research
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1. What is narrative research?
2. What are the types of narrative designs?
3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?
5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?
CEIT 712

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4 What are some ethical issues in gathering stories?
• Distorting data
• Inability to tell the story because it is horrific
• Forgetting story

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Narrative Research
18
1. What is narrative research?
2. What are the types of narrative designs?
3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?
5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?
CEIT 712

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Steps in conducting narrative research
Identify a
phenomenon
to explore
that
addresses an
educational
problem
1
Purposefully
select an
individual
from whom
you can learn
about the
phenomenon
2
Collect the
story from
that
individual
3
Restory or
retell the
individual’s
story
4
Collaborate
with the
participant–
storyteller
5
Write a story
about the
participant’s
experiences
6
Validate the
accuracy of
the report
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5

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1. Identify a phenomenon to explore that addresses an educational problem
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
Stories about what
E.g.: Stories about difficulties novice teachers
have in meeting diverse needs of students
Determining a research problem to study and
identifying a central phenomenon

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2. Purposefully select an individual from whom you can learn about the phenomenon
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
Selecting one or more volunteer individuals who can provide
an understanding of the phenomenon

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3. Collect the story from that individual
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
Several ways to collect stories (field texts) from individuals:
• Have the individual tell about his or her experiences through
personal conversations or interviews.
• Have the individual record his or her story in a journal or diary.
• Observe the individual and record field notes.
• Collect letters sent by the individual.
• Assemble stories about the individual from family members.
• Obtain photographs, and other personal/family/social artifacts.

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4. Restory or retell the individual’s story
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
Chronological sequence
Logical connections among ideas
Analyzing it for key elements
Rewriting the story

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4. Restory or retell the individual’s story
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
Narrative researchers differ about the elements to select in the raw
data before chronologically sequencing them.
Two approaches regarding these elements are problem solution
and three-dimensional space approaches.

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Problem solution approach
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >
Characters Setting Problem Actions Resolution
Individual’s
archetype,
personality,
behaviors, style,
and patterns
Context,
environment,
conditions,
place, time,
locale, year and
era
Question to be
answered or
phenomena to
be described or
explained
Movements
through the
story illustrating
character’s
thinking,
feelings,
intentions,
actions, and
reactions about
failed and
successful
attempts
Answers the
question and
explains what
caused the
turning point or
the character to
change

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Problem solution approach
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >
Let’s examine a transcript and then
find elements of problem solution approach

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Three-dimensional space approach
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >
Interaction Continuity Situation
Personal Social Past Present Future Place
Look inward
to internal
conditions,
feelings,
hopes,
aesthetic
reactions,
moral
dispositions
Look
outward to
existential
conditions in
the
environment
with other
people and
their
intentions,
purposes,
assumptions,
and points of
view
Look
backward to
remembered
stories and
experiences
from earlier
times
Look at
current
stories and
experiences
relating to
actions of
an event.
Look forward
to implied
and possible
experiences
and plot
lines
Look at context,
time and place
situated in a
physical landscape
or in a setting
bounded by
characters’
intentions,
purposes and
different points of
view.

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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >
Comparing two approaches
Problem solution approach Three-dimensional space approach
Focus is to solve the problem Focus is the experiences and interactions
of the individuals
Researchers use more linear and highly
sequenced approach
Researchers use more holistic and broad
lens to tell the story by focusing on
different elements
The sequence of events is characters,
setting and problem, and then actions
and resolution
There is no an ideal order in sequencing
events

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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >
Coding for themes
Chan (2010) divided a Chinese immigrant student’s stories
about changes in her cultural identity into four themes. They
are:
• Home language conflicting with school language,
• School language conflicting with home language,
• Parent values conflicting with peer values and
• Teacher expectations conflicting with parent expectations.
The researcher can segment stories into themes or categories.

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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? > 4. Restory or retell the individual’s story >
Coding for themes
Dvir (2015) created three themes to indicate how student
teachers with physical disabilities gain professional identity
incrementally. They are:
• Past exclusion based on physical difference,
• Significant turning point and
• Construction of an educational approach to difference.

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5. Collaborate with the participant–storyteller
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
This collaboration might involve
• Negotiating on how to enter to the research site,
• Working closely with the participant to get field texts and
• Writing and telling the individual’s story in the researcher’s words.
Collaboration between the researcher and the participant decreases the
potential gap between the narrative told and the narrative reported.

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6. Write a story about the participant’s experiences
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
• Restory has a central place in the narrative report.
• Specific themes that derived from the story should be emphasized.
• It is not necessary to write a specific literature section. The literature
about the problem might be added to the final sections of the study.

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6. Write a story about the participant’s experiences
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
• The setting in which the individual experiences the central
phenomenon should be described in detail.
• A section about the importance of narrative research and the
procedures involved in it can be written.
• The researcher can use the first-person pronoun to refer to
yourself.

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7. Validate the accuracy of the report
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What are the steps in conducting narrative research? >
Collaboration
Triangulation
Member checking

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Narrative Research
35
1. What is narrative research?
2. What are the types of narrative designs?
3. What are the key characteristics of narrative designs?
4. What are some potential ethical issues in gathering stories?
5. What are the steps in conducting narrative research?
CEIT 712

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References
Chan, E. (2010). Living in the space between participant and researcher as a narrative
inquirer: examining ethnic identity of chinese canadian students as conflicting
stories to live by. The journal of Educational Research, 103, 113-122.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design choosing among five
approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research planning, conducting and evaluating
quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Dvir, N. (2015). Does physical disability affect the construction of professional identity?
Narratives of student teachers with physical disabilities. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 52, 56-65.
Fraenkel, J., Wallen, N., & Hyun, H. (2012). How to design and evaluate research in
education (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ollerenshaw, J.A. (1998). A study of the impact of a supplemental storytelling (oral
narrative) strategy on fourth grade students’ understanding of the physics of
sound. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Ollerenshaw, J. A., & Creswell, J. W. (2002). Narrative research: a comparison of two
restorying data analysis approaches. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(3), 329-347.
Webster, L., & Mertowa, P. (2007).Using narrative inquiry as a research method: an
introduction to using critical event narrative analysis research on learning and
teaching. Oxon: Routledge. 36
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