Researching practice: the methodological case for narrative inquiry

Abstract

Research interest in the analysis of stories has increased as researchers in many disciplines endeavor to see the world through the eyes of others. We make the methodological case for narrative inquiry as a unique means to get inside the world of health promotion practice. We demonstrate how this form of inquiry may reveal what practitioners value most in and through their practice, and the indigenous theory or the cause-and-consequence thinking that governs their actions. Our examples draw on a unique data set, i.e. 2 two years' of diaries being kept by community development officers in eight communities engaged in a primary care and community development intervention to reduce postnatal depression and promote the physical health of recent mothers. Narrative inquiry examines the way a story is told by considering the positioning of the actor/storyteller, the endpoints, the supporting cast, the sequencing and the tension created by the revelation of some events, in preference to others. Narrative methods may provide special insights into the complexity of community intervention implementation over and above more familiar research methods.

Identification Paradoxes and Multiple Belongings: The Narratives of Italian Migrants in the Netherlands

“…The biographical angle, as expressed in the chronological structure of the interviews, enabled us to capture the diversity of stories about participants' choices and experiences in the Netherlands in different phases of their lives. The narratives gave us the opportunity to discover what was important to the narrators about their points of connection or disconnection to places and people in their lives, what and whom they identify with, and the meanings they attached to experiences (Bryman, 2008;KohlerRiessman, 1993;Riley & Hawe, 2005).…”

Triple-rigorous Storytelling: A PI's Reflections on Devising Case Study Methods with Five Community-based Food Justice Organizations

“…i.e., using a variety of methods in a study. The academic case study methods we have used include semistructured coding of textual files, narrative inquiry with some interviews (Riessman, 1993;Riley & Hawe, 2005), collaborative pathway modelling (Hargraves & Denning, 2018), and institutional ethnography (Campbell & Gregor, 2004;D. E. Smith, 2005).…”

Zimbabwean female participation in physics: The use of drawings in documenting students' images of scientists

“…It is a method for "identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data" (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 79). According to Riley and Hawe (2005), thematic analysis may be done in two ways; either themes are generated deductively by the researcher's a priori interests or inductively deriving them from the data itself i.e. the open coding of data by looking for patterns in the data or the building of a set of themes to describe a phenomenon.…”