Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Chapter 16 Narrative Research Designs

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.2 By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: Define narrative research and identify when to use narrative designs Describe the types of narrative designs Identify key characteristics of narrative designs Describe potential issues in gathering data List the steps in conducting a narrative study List criteria for evaluating narrative research

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.3 What Is Narrative Research? In narrative research, researchers describe the lives of individuals, collect and tell stories about people’s lives, and write narratives of individual experiences. As a distinct form of qualitative research, a narrative typically 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.

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.4 When Do You Use Narrative Designs? When individuals are willing to tell their stories When you: –Want to report personal experiences in a particular setting –Want a close bond with participants –Have a chronology of events –Want to write in a literary way and develop the micro picture When participants want to process their stories

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.5 The Development of Narrative Research 1990 Clandinin and Connelly provided 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

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.6 Types of Narrative Designs: Questions to Ask Who writes or records the story? (biography; autobiography) How much of a life is recorded or presented? (life history; personal experience story) Who provides the story? Is a theoretical lens being used? (ideology that provides structure) When can narrative forms be combined? (biography and personal account)

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.7 Key Characteristics of Narrative Designs Individual experiences Chronology of the experiences Collecting individual stories Restorying Coding for themes Context or setting Collaboration with participants

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.8 Key Characteristics: Individual Experiences The narrative researcher –Explores experiences of a single individual –Is interested in exploring the past and present experiences of that individual\ –Is also interested in how the individual interacts with others

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 16.9 Key Characteristics: Chronology of Experiences Researcher analyzes and writes about an individual life using a time sequence or chronology of events Researcher orders these events in a way that makes sense to a reader

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Key Characteristics: Collecting Individual Stories A story in narrative research is a first-person oral telling or retelling of an individual’s experiences. Stories: –Have a beginning, middle, and end –Involve a predicament, conflict, or struggle; a protagonist or character; and a sequence with implied causality (a plot) during which the predicament is resolved in some fashion –Like novels, have time, place, plot, and scene Varied sources of data comprise the database.

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Key Characteristics: Restorying Restorying 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.

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition The Process of Restorying Transcription: Researcher conducts the interview and transcribes the conversation from an audiotape. Retranscription: Researcher identifies the key elements of the story. Codes are used by the researcher to identify setting, characters’ actions, problem, and resolution in the transcript. Restorying: Researcher organizes the key codes into a sequence.

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition The Elements of Restorying Context: The environment, conditions, time of year Characters: Individuals in the story described as archetypes, their behaviors, personalities, patterns Actions: Movements of individuals through the story that illustrate behavior of characters Problem: Questions to be answered Resolution: Answers to the questions

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Key Characteristics: Coding for Themes Themes –Provide the complexity of the story –Add depth to the insight about understanding an individual’s experiences –Can be incorporated into the passage retelling the individual’s experience or as a separate section of the study

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Key Characteristics: Context or Setting 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

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Key Characteristics: Collaboration With Participants Collaboration: Inquirer actively involves the participant in the inquiry as it unfolds. Strategies –Negotiating relationships –Involving participants in the process of research –Negotiating transitions in the research process

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Potential Issues in Narrative Research Is the story authentic? (“Faking the data” is possible.) Is the story “real”? (Participants may not be able to tell the “real story.”) Who “owns” the story? (Does the researcher have permission to share it?) Is participant’s voice lost? Does the researcher gain at the expense of the participant?

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Steps in Narrative Research Identify a phenomenon that addresses an educational problem Purposefully select an individual to learn about the phenomenon Collaborate with participant storyteller in all phases of research Restory or retell the individual’s story Collect stories from the individual that reflect personal experience Have them tell story Collect other field texts Build in past, present, future Build in place or setting Validate the accuracy of the report Write a story about the participant’s personal and social experiences Describe their story Analyze story for themes

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition 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?

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Evaluating Narrative Research (cont’d) In the restorying, was the participant’s voice as well as the researcher’s voice heard? Did the researcher identify themes that emerged from the story? Did the story include information about the place or setting of the individual?

Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved. John W. Creswell Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, third edition Evaluating Narrative Research (cont’d) 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?