Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research

by D. Jean Clandinin (University of Alberta); F. Michael Connelly (Univerisity of Toronto)

• ISBN13: 9780787943431
• ISBN10: 0787943436
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

"The literature on narrative inquiry has been, until now, widely scattered and theoretically incomplete. Clandinin and Connelly have created a major tour de force. This book is lucid, fluid, beautifully argued, and rich in examples. Students will find a wealth of arguments to support their research, and teaching faculty will find everything they need to teach narrative inquiry theory and methods."--Yvonna S. Lincoln, professor, Department of Educational Administration, Texas A&M University Understanding experience as lived and told stories--also known as narrative inquiry--has gained popularity and credence in qualitative research. Unlike more traditional methods, narrative inquiry successfully captures personal and human dimensions that cannot be quantified into dry facts and numerical data. In this definitive guide, Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly draw from more than twenty years of field experience to show how narrative inquiry can be used in educational and social science research. Tracing the origins of narrative inquiry in the social sciences, they offer new and practical ideas for conducting fieldwork, composing field notes, and conveying research results. Throughout the book, stories and examples reveal a wide range of narrative methods. Engaging and easy to read, Narrative Inquiry is a practical resource from experts who have long pioneered the use of narrative in qualitative research.

Author Biography

D. JEAN CLANDININ is professor and director of the Centre for Research for Teacher Education and Development at the University of Alberta. A former vice president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), she was the 1993 winner of AERA's Early Career Development Award. <P>F. MICHAEL CONNELLY is professor and director of the Centre for Teacher Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. A founding editor of Curriculum Inquiry, he was the 1999 winner of AERA's Lifetime Achievement Award in curriculum studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
The Authors	xix
Prologue	xxi
Why Narrative?	1	(20)
Introduction	1	(1)
John Dewey	2	(1)
Mark Johnson and Alasdair MacIntyre	3	(1)
New Ways of Thinking: The Contribution of Inquiry	4	(1)
After the Fact: Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist	5	(2)
Clifford Geertz
Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way	7	(3)
Mary Catherine Bateson
Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity	10	(1)
Barbara Czarniawska
The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination	11	(4)
Robert Coles
Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences	15	(1)
Donald Polkinghorne
Bringing These Authors to Narrative Inquiry	16	(1)
Why the Turn to Narrative?	17	(3)
Coming to Research Narratively	20	(1)
Thinking Narratively: A Case at the Boundaries	21	(13)
Introduction	21	(1)
Bloom's Taxonomy	21	(4)
Working with the Taxonomy Team	25	(2)
Responses to a Narrative Revision	27	(2)
Inquiry Life at the Boundaries	29	(3)
Temporality	29	(1)
People	30	(1)
Action	30	(1)
Certainty	31	(1)
Context	32	(1)
Summary	32	(2)
Thinking Narratively: Reductionistic and Formalistic Boundaries	34	(14)
Introduction	35	(1)
The Ideas of Schen, Oakeshott, and Johnson	35	(3)
Narrative Thinking at the Formalistic Boundary	38	(2)
Inquiry Life at the Formalistic Boundary	40	(6)
The Place of Theory	40	(2)
The Balance of Theory	42	(1)
People	43	(2)
The Place of the Researcher	45	(1)
Summary	46	(2)
What Do Narrative Inquirers Do?	48	(15)
Introduction	49	(1)
Narrative Inquiry Terms and Narrative Inquiry Spaces	49	(2)
A Story of Working in a Three-Dimensional Narrative Inquiry Space with Ming Fang He	51	(3)
Three-Dimensional Narrative Inquiry Space	54	(3)
A Story of Working in a Three-Dimensional Narrative Inquiry Space with Karen Whelan	57	(3)
A Reflective Note	60	(3)
Being in the Field: Walking into the Midst of Stories	63	(17)
Introduction	63	(1)
Beginning in the Midst	63	(1)
Beginning in the Midst at Bay Street School	64	(4)
Being in the Midst Is Different for Everyone	68	(3)
Living, Telling, Retelling, and Reliving Stories	71	(1)
What Do We Do Now That We Are in the Field?	71	(6)
Negotiating Relationships	71	(2)
Negotiating Purposes	73	(1)
Negotiating Transitions	74	(1)
Negotiating a Way to Be Useful	75	(1)
Getting a Feel for It	76	(1)
Living Life on the Landscape	77	(3)
From Field to Field Texts: Being in a Place of Stories	80	(12)
Introduction	80	(1)
Falling in Love, Slipping to Cool Observation	81	(2)
Remembering an Outline, Slipping into Detail	83	(2)
Narrative Truth and Narrative Relativism	85	(1)
Turning Inward, Watching Outward	86	(3)
The Ambiguity of Working in a Three-Dimensional Inquiry Space	89	(3)
Composing Field Texts	92	(27)
Introduction	92	(1)
Composing Field Texts Is an Interpretive Process	93	(1)
Writing Field Texts Expresses the Relationship of Researcher to Participant	94	(1)
Field Texts in a Three-Dimensional Inquiry Space	95	(1)
Interwoven Field Texts	96	(2)
Teacher Stories as Field Text	98	(3)
Autobiographical Writing as Field Text	101	(1)
Journal Writing as Field Text	102	(2)
Field Notes as Field Text	104	(2)
Letters as Field Text	106	(2)
Conversation as Field Text	108	(2)
Research Interview as Field Text	110	(2)
Family Stories and Stories of Families as Field Text	112	(1)
Documents as Field Text	113	(1)
Photographs, Memory Boxes, and Other Personal-Family-Social Artifacts as Field Text	114	(1)
Life Experience as a Source of Field Texts	115	(1)
What Is Important for Inquirers to Know About Field Texts?	116	(3)
From Field Texts to Research Texts: Making Meaning of Experience	119	(19)
Introduction	119	(1)
What Do Narrative Inquirers Do?	120	(1)
Justification (Why?)	121	(3)
Phenomena (What?)	124	(3)
Method (How?)	127	(8)
Theoretical Considerations	127	(2)
Practical Field Text-Oriented Considerations	129	(1)
Interpretive-Analytic Considerations	130	(5)
Theory and Literature	135	(1)
Kind of Text Intended	136	(2)
Composing Research Texts	138	(31)
Introduction	138	(1)
Experiencing Tensions as Writing Begins	139	(1)
Writing Research Texts at the Boundaries	140	(3)
Writing Research Texts at the Formalistic Boundary	140	(1)
Writing Research Texts at the Reductionistic Boundary	141	(2)
Writing, Memory, and Research Texts	143	(1)
Writing Research Texts in the Midst of Uncertainty	144	(7)
Voice	146	(1)
Signature	147	(2)
Audience	149	(1)
Tensions Among Voice, Signature, and Audience	149	(2)
Narrative Form	151	(11)
Narrative Form in He's Dissertation	156	(3)
Narrative Form in Rose's Dissertation	159	(3)
Searching for Narrative Form	162	(5)
Reading Other Narrative Dissertations and Books	162	(1)
Looking for Metaphor	163	(1)
Noticing Reading Preferences	163	(1)
Experimenting with Form	164	(2)
Maintaining a Sense of Work in Progress	166	(1)
Audience and the Composition of Research Texts	167	(2)
Persistent Concerns in Narrative Inquiry	169	(18)
Introduction	169	(1)
Ethics	170	(4)
Ethics and Anonymity	174	(2)
Ownership and Relational Responsibilities	176	(1)
How We Are Storied as Researchers	177	(2)
Fact and Fiction	179	(2)
Risks, Dangers, and Abuses: ``I, the Critic''	181	(3)
Wakefulness	184	(3)
Epilogue	187	(4)
References	191	(8)
Index	199