Where form and substance meet: using the narrative approach of re-storying to generate research findings and community rapprochement in (university) mathematics education

Abstract

Story-telling is an engaging way through which lived experience can be shared and reflected upon, and a tool through which difference, diversity -and even conflict -can be acknowledged and elaborated upon. Narrative approaches to research bring the richness and vibrancy of storytelling into how data is collected and interpretations of it shared. In this paper I demonstrate the potency of the narrative approach of re-storying for a certain type of university mathematics education research (non-deficit, non-prescriptive, context-specific, example-centred and mathematically-focused) conducted at the interface of two communities: mathematics education and mathematics. I do so through reference to Amongst Mathematicians (Nardi, 2008), a study carried out in collaboration with 20 university mathematicians from six UK mathematics departments. The study deployed re-storying to present data and analyses in the form of a dialogue between two fictional, yet entirely data-grounded, characters -M, mathematician, and RME, researcher in mathematics education. In the dialogues, the typically conflicting epistemologies -and mutual perceptions of such epistemologies -of the two communities come to the fore as do the feasibility-of, benefits-from, obstacles-in and conditions-for collaboration between these communities. First, I outline the use of narrative approaches in mathematics education research. Then, I introduce the study and its use of re-storying, illustrating this with an example: the construction of a dialogue from interview data in which the participating mathematicians discuss the potentialities and pitfalls of visualization in university mathematics teaching. I conclude by outlining re-storying as a vehicle for community rapprochement achieved through generating and sharing research findings -the substance of research -in forms that reflect the fundamental principles and aims that underpin this research. My conclusions resonate WHERE FORM AND SUBSTANCE MEET 2 with sociocultural constructs that view mathematics teacher education as contemporary praxis and the aforementioned inter-community discussion as taking place within a third space.

The Story as a Quality Instrument: Developing an Instrument for Quality Improvement Based on Narratives of Older Adults Receiving Long-Term Care

“…In (holistic) narrative analysis, researchers analyze transcripts and field notes and consequently retell or restory the narratives of the research participants. This process is appropriately called “ restorying ” in narrative research: the process of collecting stories, analyzing them for key elements and then composing and rewriting each story in chronological sequence [ 55 , 56 ]. This creates the difference between first-order narratives–the stories that individuals tell about themselves and their own experiences–and second-order narratives–which researchers construct to make sense of the experiences of respondents [ 27 ].…”

Narrative Depictions of Working With Language Interpreters in Cross-Language Qualitative Research

“…Through re-storying, I retained an active role in composing and crafting her story. The re-storying process has been applied across several disciplines and is considered a transparent, accountable, and replicable approach for the cocreation of narratives between the participant and researcher (Nardi, 2016).…”

Research on Teaching and Learning Mathematics at the Tertiary Level: State-of-the-Art and Looking Ahead

“…In terms of storytelling, Nardi (2016) supports that "storytelling is an engaging way through which lived experience can be shared and reflected upon" and suggests a narrative approach of re-storying to present data (and analyses of these data) collected from interviews with twenty university mathematicians from six UK departments (Nardi 2008). Results are presented in the form of a dialogue between two fictional, yet entirely data-grounded, characters: a mathematician (M) and a researcher in mathematics education (RME).…”

“…The re-storying approach is presented in details and exemplified through an application of it in a small number of interviews, which were re-storied into an exchange of utterances between the M and RME characters on potentialities and pitfalls of visualization in university mathematics teaching. Nardi (2016) concludes with a suggestion of "re-storying as a vehicle for community [M and RME community] rapprochement achieved through generating and sharing research findings".…”