Vera Caine

Sean Lessard

D. Jean Clandinin

Introducing key ideas of narrative inquiry, this is the first book to explore in depth the theoretical underpinnings of the methodology. The authors open up ways of thinking about people's experiences and their lives, which are situated and shaped by cultural, social, familial, institutional, and linguistic narratives. The authors draw on a range of theorists, creative nonfiction writers, poets, and essayists. The book is arranged into five parts covering a range of topics including: embodiment, memory, knowledge, wonder, imagination, community, responsibility, and place. Each section ends with a methodological discussion of their work involving refugee families with young children from Syria.

Philosophical Roots

Narrative Inquiry

Andrew Estefan

The most commonly accepted definition of narrative inquiry is that it is a way of understanding experience. Human beings live lives that are shaped by their experiences within personal, familial, social, institutional, professional, linguistic, cultural, and historical narratives. This entry on narrative inquiry focuses on the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of narrative inquiry and how these have shaped development of the methodology and methods over time. It explores key touchstones, which mark narrative inquiries, and points out current and anticipated methodological issues. The stories people tell, stories that are told for and about them, and stories that they engage with influence their sense-making. Relational ethics shape researchers' ongoing negotiations alongside participants, as well as their responsibilities and obligations. Central to each narrative inquiry is the ongoing engagement between researchers and participants; this is visible in narrative inquirers' commitment to co-compositions. Narrative inquirers understand lives as always in the midst, always in motion, which has significant implications for the ways in which they represent their work. Understanding that their intentions in narrative inquiry are not to generate singular truth allows narrative inquirers to carefully consider what they represent in research texts. While attending to multiple audiences, each research text always makes visible the personal, practical, and social justifications of their work.

Pam Steeves

Composing Lives in Transition: A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Early School Leavers is structured around ten narrative accounts, each one offering glimpses into the lives of early school leavers from different backgrounds

A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Early School Leavers

Composing Lives in Transition

Narrative inquiry is based on the proposition that experience is the stories lived and told by individuals as they are embedded within cultural, social, institutional, familial, political, and linguistic narratives. It represents the phenomenon of experience but also constitutes a methodology for its study. At the heart of this methodology is relational ethics. However, until now the functioning of this key relationship in practice has remained largely undefined. In this book the authors take on the essential task of developing a conceptual framework for the application of relational ethics to narrative inquiry. Building on a corpus of more generalized research, this book is grounded in a multi-year study with indigenous youth and families. The authors describe their experiences of narrative inquiry, highlighting how relational ethics informed their negotiation of these research relationships. They also engage in a conversation with the work of philosophers who have guided their narrative inquiry to offer a more thorough understanding of relational ethics. Through this, and contributions from five further studies on a diverse range of subjects, a number of key points for successful relational ethics are isolated and expounded upon. This book is an invaluable tool for researchers and postgraduates engaged in qualitative research — providing clear and practical guidance on ethical concerns. It also extends the work of the authors’ two previous titles, Engaging in Narrative Inquiry and Engaging in Narrative Inquiries with Children and Youth.

The Relational Ethics of Narrative Inquiry

Jean Clandinin

Janice Huber

Renowned scholar and founder of the practice of narrative inquiry, D. Jean Clandinin, and her coauthors provide researchers with the theoretical underpinnings and processes for conducting narrative inquiry with children and youth. Exploring the unique ability of narratives to elucidate the worldview of research subjects, the authors highlight the unique steps and issues of working with these special populations. The authors address key ethical issues of anonymity and confidentiality, the relational issues of co-composing field and research texts with subjects, and working within the familial contexts of children and youth; include numerous examples from the authors’ studies and others – many from indigenous communities-- to show narrative inquiry in action; should be invaluable to researchers in education, family relations, child development, and children’s health and services.

Vera Caine

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