Staking a small claim for fictional narratives in social and educational research

Abstract

The use of narrative has become widespread in social and educational research, as both the phenomenon under study and as a method of analysis. However, this general acceptance of narrative as focus of research may not extend to the use of fictional narratives and related genres such as semi-fiction and creative non-fiction, nor to use of novels as ‘data’. This article examines the uses of fiction as data, analytical tool and representational mode in social and educational research. The purpose is to present an overview of the current uses being made of these approaches, illustrating different facets of engagement with fictional narratives, and to consider what can be gained (and also perhaps what might be lost) through their adoption

Presenting and representing others: towards an ethics of engagement

“…Third, there is the relational ethical practice of aiming to engage audiences, sometimes through direct participation (e.g. Watson, 2011) but always through providing entertainment together with information (e.g. Jenkins, 2015).…”

“…Linked to this drive to move away from literal truth representations to evoking affective modes of engagement, Watson (2011) pushed presentation past disseminating findings to combining direct quotes with fictionalisation, satire, and drama. She 'presented' the experiences of a mother whose child had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.…”

“…An already established playwright, Jenkins' play, The Spirit of Detroit, allowed her to present her works to multiple audiences, in multiple settings including the University of Michigan and the Charles C Wright Museum of African American History. Like Watson (2011), Sangha et al (2012) and Berbary (2011), Jenkins noted positive responses from her audiencebut unlike them she also highlighted that audience responses were not only positive, noting that individual audience members have different reactions to the same performance, ranging from enjoyment to disagreement or wanting to correct errors (Jenkins, 2014, p. 154; see also Mendeloff, 2015;Rice & Rice, 2015;Smith, 2015).…”

“…The significant compromise of researchers such as Furman (2006), Berbary (2011), Carroll et al (2011), Watson (2011), Douglas (2012, Sangha et al (2012) and Jenkins (2015), is in relation to what Bakan (1996) calls literal truth. Forms such as poems, plays, song and dance all entail sacrificing literal truth for what the authors hope is, to borrow Bakan's language, a real truth: an evocation of being there, an opportunity t o step inside the lives of others for a moment, to feel as well as think your way into other worlds.…”

Disability, inclusive adventurous training and adapted sport: Two soldiers' stories of involvement

“…In Watson's (2011) terms, fictional approaches do "not aim at the transparent representation of data (itself a fiction) but at its re-presentation in such a way as to constitute an analysis through the generation of another narrative" (p. 404). In the context of this study, if the participant's story is taken as 'raw data' (a portion of which is 'lost' because the telling was not audio-recorded), then the collaborative writing of each story is itself an analytical act achieved through generating a further narrative.…”