Narrative research is a term that subsumes a group of approaches that in turn rely on the written or spoken words or visual representation of individuals. These approaches typically focus on the lives of individuals as told through their own stories. The emphasis in such approaches is on the story, typically both what and how is narrated. Narrative research can be considered both a research method in itself but also the phenomenon under study.

1. NARRATIVE RESEARCH
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Syed Ahmed Ali
Muhammad Atif
M. Farrukh Ejaz
Shakir Ullah
Saleem Ahmed

2. Key Ideas
 Brief history of narrative research
 Key characteristics of narrative designs
 Strengths and weaknesses of narrative designs
 Steps in conducting narrative research
 Criteria for evaluating narrative research
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3. A Brief History of Narrative
Research in Education
 1990 Clandinin and Connelly first overview of
narrative research in education
 Trends influencing the development of
narrative research
 increased emphasis on teacher reflection
 emphasis placed on teacher knowledge
 attempt to bring teachers’ voices to the forefront
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4. Key Characteristics of Narrative
Designs
 Focuses on individual experiences
 Reports a chronology of the experiences
 use a time sequence of events
 chronology sets narrative apart
 Collects the individual stories told to the researcher or
gathered through field texts
 autobiographies
 interviews
 journals
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5. Key Characteristics of Narrative
Designs
 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
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6. Key Characteristics of Narrative
Designs
 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
 collaborates throughout the process of
research with the individuals whose
stories are being reported
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7. Key Characteristics of
Narrative Designs
 Collaborates throughout the process of research
with the individuals whose stories are being
reported
 Participants are actively involved in the inquiry as it
unfolds
 Relationships between research and participant
are negotiated to minimize the potential gap
between narrative told and narrative reported
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8. Strengths and Weaknesses
of Narrative Designs
Strengths
 Collaboration
 Gives “voice” to
educators
 Helps others
understand topics
 Captures everyday
familiar data
Weaknesses
 Participants may
“fake the data”
 Telling “horrific”
experiences
 Ownership of the
story
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9. Steps in Conducting
Narrative Research
 Identify a phenomenon to explore that
addresses an educational problem
 Purposefully select an individual to learn about
the phenomenon
 Collect the story from the individual
 Restory or retell the individual’s story
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10. Steps in Conducting
Narrative Research
 Collaborate with the participant storyteller
 Write a story about the participant’s experiences
 Validate the accuracy of the report
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11. Criteria for 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?
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12. Criteria for Evaluating
Narrative Research
 Did the story include information about place or
setting of the individual?
 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?
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13. Applying What you Have
Learned: Narrative Designs
Review the article and look for the following:
 The research problem and use of quantitative research
 Use of the literature
 The purpose statement and research hypothesis
 Types and procedures of data collection
 Types and procedures of data analysis and interpretation
 The overall report structure
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