Introduction to narrative inquiry

with special consideration of research on education

Esko Johnson, PhD (Education) Principal Lecturer in English Language and

CommunicationKokkola Campus

Centria University of Applied Sciences, Finland

NOTE: Before the workshop

Before taking part in the workshop, the participants should read Chapter One titled “Why Narrative”, in Clandinin & Connelly’s book Narrative Inquiry (2000), or view Jean Clandinin’s brief interview available in Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnaTBqapMrE

Aim of this workshop

• You will find it easier and more interesting to read and interpret narrative research texts and assess their value

• You will be able to consider or plan to draw up research designs that follow principles commonly observed within NI

This workshop: showcasing and asking key questions

Introducing the NI approach (with some related studies), to raise your awareness on: – What is a narrative? – What goes on in narrative

inquiry?– How is narrative inquiry different

compared to other qualitative approaches in education research?

– What is not narrative inquiry?

The very vast area of NINarrative inquiry includes:• eliciting, finding or constructing narratives• analysing narratives (also: narratology)• narrative analysis (in a way “narrative

synthesis”)

Overall, the use of narratives connects areas of research, and it is multidisciplinary; education and..

• Sociology, social work, political science, psychology, anthropology/ ethnology…

• Arts, literature, linguistics, language studies, communication sciences…

• Management studies, organisational research…• Medicine, therapy, nursing science...

Mimesis1, mimesis2, and mimesis3 (Heikkinen, Huttunen & Kakkori 2000; Ricoeur 1981)

Life and its pre-understanding

Applying the story to one’s life

Composing a story

Reformed life and its pre-understanding

Composing a story

Life: “Original”

Story:“Picture”, imitation

What goes on in narrative inquiry?- 1

• NI covers and utilises narrative as both the method and phenomena of study

• By eliciting, analyzing and understanding stories that are lived and told, NI is located in qualitative research methodology

• NI involves the reconstruction of a person’s experience in relationship both to the other and to a social milieu

• Paradigmatic vs narrative knowing (Bruner 1991)• Analysis of narratives vs narrative analysis

(Bruner 1991; Clandinin & Connelly 2000)

What goes on in narrative inquiry?- 2

• Relationship of the researcher to the researched: – interpretation and understanding of meaning – the researcher and the researched are not

bounded but in relationship with each other; both parties will learn in the encounter

• Shift: from the use of numbers toward the use of words as data

• Shift: from a focus on the general and universal toward the local and specific (knowledge, knowing)

• Acceptance of alternative epistemologies or ways of knowing

(Pinnegar & Daynes 2007)

What goes on in narrative inquiry?- 3

“Narrative inquiry [is] a methodology based upon collecting, analysing, and re-presenting people’s stories as told by them (...) based on a worldview (ontology) that we live our storied lives and our world is a storied world (...) Narrative represents, constitutes and shapes social reality (…) Competing narratives represent different realities not simply different perspectives (…) Telling and re-telling one’s story helps a person create a sense of self.” (Etherington 2004, 75)

What is a story and what is not?• Your research project will require you to define this;

– a relative definition: “it depends”• Yet, the simple and “classical” definition: a story

has a beginning, middle, and end (evaluative part)– a first‑person oral telling or retelling of an

individual – or not; – a predicament, conflict, or struggle; a

protagonist or character; a sequence with a plot during which the predicament is resolved in some fashion – or not

• A story has a time, place, plot, and scene• Compare: canonical story vs the story with the

breach (Bruner 1991)• Compare: big story vs small story (incl. fragment

and metaphor)• Compare: story as content vs form/language of

story

Stories and NI “People shape their daily lives by stories of who they and

others are and as they interpret their past in terms of these stories. Story, in the current idiom, is a portal through which a person enters the world and by which their experience of the world is interpreted and made personally meaningful. Narrative inquiry, the study of experience as story, then, is first and foremost a way of thinking about experience. Narrative inquiry as a methodology entails a view of the phenomenon. To use narrative inquiry methodology is to adopt a particular view of experience as phenomenon under study.”

(Connelly & Clandinin 2006, p. 375)

Critical Incidents by Korhonen (2002)

”Pre-historical site” (GLG field trip)

”Pre-historical site” (GLG field report by a student)

”After we arrived to Alaveteli, we had a salmon soup and took out for a walk in the forest. We were with two nice guides, who wanted to show us a pre-historical village. We have been walking for ten minutes before arriving in front of the first « house ». It was in fact a depression in the ground. We saw a lot of them. These depressions in the ground were used by pre-historical men as basics of their huts. (…) But it is difficult after so much time to determine exactly their usefulness. Of course there are still some traces of their passage, but nothing else. It was really difficult to imagine pre-historical men lived there.” ”Nevertheless we think that it was a little bit boring. Indeed we saw about six depressions. Of course they had different uses, but for us it was just holes! However, it was interesting to learn about this pre-historical period.”

Story telling and retelling in cyber learning environments

” The purpose (…) [was] to investigate story telling and retelling as a learning strategy to facilitate meaningful learning on environmental education in cyberspace. (…) story telling (…) can build a richer context (…) learners can enhance environmental ethics indirectly.

[T]he development of a cyber learning environment via computer networks (…) helps them build environmental awareness through storytelling at the elementary level. The project (…) facilitating narrative inquiry with individual and collaborative learning through online activities. (…) )[T]his study suggests design strategies for building cyber learning environment through story telling.”

(Heo 2004)

”Becoming a foreign language teacher in the changing landscape of a university of applied sciences” (transl)

Professional values as explained in my autobiographical study

(Johnson 2011*)

– Cosmopolitan values (a.k.a. global citizenship) vs everyday nationalism

– Collaboration for change of teaching and learning (using ICT as a ”tool”)

– Helping the student, while having an eye on the (language) needs of the working life

– Equity (especially in the local worklife community)

– Life-long learning, uncompromising (?) professional inquiry (’teacher-as-researcher’)

(* I refer to my handout which is to be available in the workshop)

So what is the position and justification of NI in the ”jungle” of education research paradigms?

Assumption: Teacher’s practical professional knowledge is dialogic and contextualised, and it is created and accessible in a storied form – Beliefs, imagery and metaphors– Reality: relational, temporal, continuous – Everyday realities and happenings in

teachers’ and students’ lives make a difference - evolved into:

– Life stories and identities– Postmodern education research: generic

or “scientific” principles of teaching and learning are not in the foreground in NI

(See Clandinin & Huber 2010; Clandinin, Pushor & Orr 2007; Elbaz-Luwisch 2007 for more)

Paradigm Postpositivism Pragmatism ConstructivismRes. methods Primarily QUAL QUAN + QUAL QUALLogic Primarily deductive Deductive + inductive InductiveEpistemology (knowledge; what do we know and how)

Modified dualism. Research findings probably represent”truth”

Objective and subjective

Subjective perspective. The producer and target of scientific knowledge are inseparable

Axiology(value concepts; what are the values)

Research inquiry is laden with values, which can, however, be controlled or bracketed

Values have a central role in the interpret-ation of research and its findings

Scientific inquiry is laden with values

Ontology

(concepts of being, qualities of being and reality)

Critical or transsendental

External reality must be accepted. Select explanations that best lead to the expected outcome

Relativism

Causalities Relations of social phenomena have permanent laws which can be explored. The causes and effects of phenomena can be hypothetised.

Phenomena have may have causal connections, but these links can never be precisely confirmed.

All phenomena are interconnected and shape each other. Cause and effect can never be separated in the explanation.

Adapted from Tashakkori & Teddlie (1998)

Interviews with foreign students

1. Adapting to living and studying in Finland. Integration and becoming a member of the COU (Centria) community.

2. Development of your Finnish language skills 3. Interaction with other people. Network of friends and acquaintances.4. The most important things that happened in your life (since April 2007). -

Positive and negative experiences.5. How you have grown as a person.6. Your plans for life after graduation; career and prospects)7. English language and communication: your English skills today; how you

improved during [the past academic year]; your strengths and needs today; aims and objectives; how you want to develop.

8. The English course you took with me in [the academic year]; things you learned in the course; improvements your would like to suggest.

From field text towards interim text, and then towards research text

Based on the interview transcript, I wrote a story about the students’ experience as a foreign student at Centria, (as this unfolded to me in the thematic, unstructured interview of 1 to 2 hrs); for this: 1. First, I listened to the interview several

times during many weeks, without any stops or memoing

2. Next, I wrote a detailed thematic narrative (narrative condensation) – This could also be termed a dialogic

meaning structure (co-created by interviewee and interviewer)

3. Finally, I wrote further thematic condensations, as I worked my way towards the research text (Johnson 2011)

An interview transcript Mary: (*) Yeah. And we… I have a period, I had a period, that

maybe it’s quite, something like study, like, you know, it’s like this way. And then you learn quite good. (Esko: Oh yeah.) And you feel down. (Esko: Yeah, it’s the ups and downs also.) It’s difficult to say that this kind of…

Esko: OK. I, I think this is part of human life that we never have (Mary: yeah) everything so level but it’s going to go up now. (Mary: yeah) You have to accept that.

Mary: Yeah.Esko: Although it’s it’s not always very nice to have that.Mary: Yeah. But like language, at the beginning, I feel quite good

here. Like only the language. And I feel depressed. (….) And here now I feel more better. And then maybe more difficult. And then that we got here. So it’s quite good.

Esko: When you were here, you know, everything was quite good and you were all excited. Did you then say to your to yourself, phew, I have had a very good day today? (laughter)

Mary: Ooh, I just feel that I’m happy and (Esko: okay) ooh, that’s very nice, so sweet, that only…. So yeah. But I, and in the morning-time when I stand up I feel I am very happy. (* pseudonym)

LISA’S SECOND STORY (2008)Lisa arrives to my interview well ahead of time. We sit down and talk about the weather. So far it’s been cold weather in May, we think. Lisa asks me if it’s going to be summer soon in Kokkola. I reply I don’t really think so, in my language "kesä" starts in June ("kesäkuu") when it’s time to dress in a t-shirt only. For Lisa this will be the first summer to spend in Finland. Last autumn, in 2007, when Lisa came back to Kokkola, she thought it was very cold. Lisa adds that with the foreigners coming back, the winter will come, too. We discuss Lisa's plans for the summer. It seems that she’ll to stay in Kokkola for most of this summer.

Talking about me, Lisa says I always look like I'm in a great hurry, running to do things. I recognize myself and laugh at this comment and say you should never run, you shouldn’t waste your time on running but be thoughtful about your steps. Lisa says in the developing countries people are in fact much more in a hurry, since they have a pressure for work. Everybody is in a hurry when they work. In the morning they run. So they are much more in a hurry than people here in Europe.

We start to talk about weather, and then discuss the summer season that is ahead of us now, and about her and my plans.

Lisa thinks I’m always busy. We talk about being busy. Lisa says in developing countries people are much more in a hurry.

Lisa asks me about my research project. Will I do research as I did last year? I tell her yes, I will focus this summer and autumn term much more on research than previously. I'm going to analyse, write conclusions based on the data, and then I will be finalising my thesis at the end of the year. (….) (…)

Lisa asks about my research. (….) (…)

From Outi’s interview (Johnson 2011)

”We work in a service profession, and I would like to be a consultant to my students. In online teaching and learning, the teacher is pretty much in a consultant’s role, giving feedback, guiding them, giving them advice and answering their questions (...) It’s about this aspect I like to explain to all of my classes, that I may know something about the English language, but I don’t perhaps know much about their field of study. You see, quite often I’ll have to ask them about something. In a way, it involves us to combine our expertise: They explain this thing to me, this new technology that so far I haven’t time to discuss with my colleagues during the coffee break.. It’s such a nice image, isn’t it, about collaboration.” (Outi’s interview, May 2003)

My Story as a Music (Teacher) Student (from my Communication Skills class)

Part One - My significant learning experiences

NOTE: Remember to discuss episodes and turning points; important people who had an impact on my learning; situations and institutions. Reasons: to make the story temporal; personal and social; to tell about your stressful moments and personal growth, too.

1 What did I learn in the areas of playing, performing, singing; music education and music teaching? How and why did I learn…? 2 What is my favourite repertoire? What kind of repertoire do I aim to learn? 3 For instrumentalists: What is my instrument (instruments) like? Why do I like it (them)? For vocalists: What is my singing voice like (vocal range and quality)? How do I like it?4 What did I learn in the areas of composing and improvising? How and why did I learn…? 5 What did I learn in the area of theoretical knowledge on music? How and why did I learn…?

Part Two - SWOT – strengths, weaknesses (“internal”); opportunities and threats (“external”)

1 What are my strengths as a music student? - As a player/singer? - As a music pedagog? - As a learner of theoretical knowledge on music?2, 3,4: Repeat the above for weaknesses; opportunities and threats. Note that opportunities and threats are external, i.e., outside of you.

(…)

Eve’s story as a music student(from my Communication Skills class)

The job of a music teacher was one of my dream jobs in school. I started to play accordion when I was 8 years old. I would have liked violin lesson but all the student places were full already. I was in many competitions of accordion playing and I will go to many competitions in my future. My favourite repertoire is fast and slow pieces. A good folk music band consist of violin(s), double bass, harmonium, accordion, guitar and maybe singing. My instruments are two- and five row accordions. I like to play these cos if I´m going to a gig I have always the melody and bass side with me. So I don´t need an accompanist.

When I had my thesis concert I was thinking that this is my concert, everyone will came here to watch and listen to my concert so. That was very stressful time. I have to think how the audience will like my concert. Is it too long? Too short? Boring? The concert must look like me. It was a huge relief when the concert was over and the audience liked it.

I like composing but I have never made whole pieces or I mean that I have never arranged any my own pieces for bands. When I´m composing some kind a piece, the best way usually is improvising. Theory does not interest me at all. It´s enough that I pass the tests. A musician and music teacher will have to be dealing with strange people.

From my seminar presentation in 2007

”A new note about the [Non-European] culture.Their religion is very interesting. Also the timing as well.We arranged a meeting and they come one hour later than the real time. In their country they told me that no one is going on the exact time.They are not hurrying and it often happens to them that they [are] late like two hours and it is normal. Of course for me it was not a good feeling to wait for them and they didn’t come but we have to understand them.” ”But on the other side it could be really hard to make business with them. Otherwise the [Country X] people are really nice and friendly and if you have problem they help you any time.They share everything with you but if you tell them ”no thank you” it is very rude for them.They will feel that you don’t like them and you can easily hurt them if you refuse their offer.” (Exchange student’s diary, GLG 2007)

Conclusion 1: the merits and challenges of NI

Conclusion 1: the merits and challenges of NI

• Highlights people’s (students’, teachers’) lived experience (on and off campus) [M]

• Makes us think of the meanings of specific events in our lives (as students, as teachers) [M]

• Helps us explore the continuity and discontinuity of our experience (as students, as teachers) [M]

• Can be embedded in mixed methods designs [M] • [How] do we really learn to reflect on ourselves and our

life events against whatever makes our ‘real life’? [C]• Striking a balance between our stories (ourselves) and the

stories of others [C]• Striking a balance between ‘big’, ‘long’, or

transformative, or key stories and ‘small’ stories [C]– Whose transformation? Whose key? – Why so big?

Adapted from Bamberg (2007); Clandinin & Huber (2010); Clandinin, Pushor & Orr (2007)

Conclusion 2: what is not narrative inquiry?

Conclusion 2: what is not narrative inquiry as I see it?

Research studies (e.g. with case-study approaches) which: – Describe something in a “storied way” - yet doing so

disconnect and objectify => monologic, non-relational

• NI is “much more than just telling stories” (Clandinin, Pushor & Orr 2007; cf. Bruner 1991)

– Blur the context(s), temporality and dialogue of human experience

– Attempt to gain ”objective” data and abstract knowledge (generalisations, fixed meanings) by compromising the multitude and diversity of human experience

– Fail to commit to ethical standards and high quality requirements of NI

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrews, A., Squire, C. & Tamboukou, M. (ed) 2008. Doing Narrative Research. London: SAGE.Bamberg, M. 2007. Stories: big or small. Why do we care? In Bamberg, M. (ed) Narrative - State of the Art.

Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 165-174Bruner, J. 2001. Self-making and world-making. In J. Brockheimer (ed.) Narrative and identity. Studies in

Autobiography, Self and Culture. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 31–37.Bruner, J. 1991. The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry 18, 1-21. Bruner, J. 1990 Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Clandinin, D.J. & Connelly, F.M. 2000. Narrative inquiry: experience and story in qualitative research. San Franciso,

CA: Jossey-Bass.Clandinin, D.J., & Huber, J. 2010. Narrative inquiry. In B. McGaw, E. Baker, & P. P. Peterson (eds.), International

encyclopedia of education (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Elsevier, 436-441.Clandinin, D. J., Pushor, D. & Murray Orr, A. 2007. Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher

Education 58, 21-35. Connelly, F.M. & Clandinin, D.J. 2006. Narrative inquiry. In Handbook of complementary methods in education

research, 447-487. Elbaz-Luwisch, F., Moen, T. & Gudmundsdottir, S. The multivoicedness of classrooms: Bakhtin and narratives of

teaching. In R. Huttunen, H.L.T. Heikkinen & L. Syrjälä (eds) Narrative research: voices of teachers and philosophers. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto, 197-218.

Etherington, K. 2004. Becoming a reflexive researcher: Using our selves in research. London: Jessica Kingsley.

BIBLIOGRPAPHY ( “UNDER CONSTRUCTION”)

Heikkinen, H.L.T. 2002. Telling stories in teacher education. In R. Huttunen, H.L.T. Heikkinen & L. Syrjälä

(eds) Narrative research: voices of teachers and philosophers. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto, 123-141.

Korhonen, K. 2002. Intercultural competence as part of professional qualifications. A training experiment with bachelor of engineering students. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.

Phillion, J. & Connelly, M. 2002. Narrative inquiry in a multicultural landscape: Multicultural teaching and learning. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Pinnegar, S. & Daynes, G. 2007. Locating narrative inquiry historically: Thematics in the turn to narrative. In Clandinin, J (ed) Narrative Inquiry. Mapping a methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 3-34.

Ricoeur, P. 1981. Hermeneutics and the human sciences. Translated by J. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Riessman, C. K. 2008. Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.Tashakkori, A. & Teddlie, C. 1998. Mixed methodology: Combining qualitative and quantitative

approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.