Narrative inquiry or narrative analysis emerged as a discipline from within the broader field of qualitative research in the early 20th century, as evidence exists that this method was used in psychology and sociology. Narrative inquiry uses field texts, such as stories, autobiography, journals, field notes, letters, conversations, interviews, family stories, photos (and other artifacts), and life experience, as the units of analysis to research and understand the way people create meaning in their lives as narratives.

Narrative inquiry has been employed as a tool for analysis in the fields of cognitive science, organizational studies, knowledge theory, applied linguistics, sociology, occupational science and education studies, among others. Other approaches include the development of quantitative methods and tools based on the large volume captured by fragmented anecdotal material, and that which is self signified or indexed at the point of capture. Narrative inquiry challenges the philosophy behind quantitative/grounded data-gathering and questions the idea of "objective" data; however, it has been criticized for not being "theoretical enough." In disciplines like applied linguistics, scholarly work has pointed out that enough critical mass of studies exists in the discipline that uses this theory, and that a framework can be developed to guide its application.

Background

Narrative inquiry is a form of qualitative research, that emerged in the field of management science and later also developed in the field of knowledge management, which shares the sphere of information management. Narrative case studies were used by Sigmund Freud in the field of psychology, and biographies were used in sociology in the early twentieth century. Knowledge management and narrative inquiry share the idea of knowledge transfer, a theory which seeks to transfer unquantifiable elements of knowledge, including experience. Knowledge, if not communicated, becomes arguably useless, literally unused.

Philosopher Andy Clark speculates that the ways in which minds deal with narrative (second-hand information) and memory (first-hand perception) are cognitively indistinguishable. Narrative, then, becomes an effective and powerful method of transferring knowledge.

More recently, there has been a "narrative turn" in social science in response to the criticism against the paradigmatic methods of research. This technique might be called "narrative" or defined as a particular branch of storytelling within the narrative method. Bruner's approach places the narrative in time, to "assume an experience of time" rather than just making reference to historical time.

This narrative approach captures the emotion of the moment described, rendering the event active rather than passive, infused with the latent meaning being communicated by the teller. Two concepts are thus tied to narrative storytelling: memory and notions of time; both as time as found in the past and time as re-lived in the present.

A narrative method accepts the idea that knowledge can be held in stories that can be relayed, stored, and retrieved. There is also a view that a critical event can play an important role as creating the context of a narrative to be captured.

3. Organize data

  • According to psychology professor Donald Polkinghorne, the goal of organizing data is to refine the research question and separate irrelevant or redundant information from that which will be eventually analyzed, sometimes referred to as "narrative smoothing."
  • Some approaches to organizing data are as follows:

:(When choosing a method of organization, one should choose the approach best suited to the research question and the goal of the project. For instance, Gee's method of organization would be best if studying the role language plays in narrative construction whereas Labov's method would more ideal for examining a certain event and its effect on an individual's experiences.)

:*Labov's: Thematic organization or Synchronic Organization.

::This method is considered useful for understanding major events in the narrative and the effect those events have on the individual constructing the narrative. The approach utilizes an "evaluation model" that organizes the data into an abstract (What was this about?), an orientation (Who? What? When? Where?), a complication (Then what happened?), an evaluation (So what?), a result (What finally happened?), and a coda (the finished narrative). Said narrative elements may not occur in a constant order; multiple or reoccurring elements may exist within a single narrative.

:*Polkinghorne's: Chronological Organization or Diachronic Organization

::also related to the sociology of stories approach that focuses on the contexts in which narratives are constructed. This approach attends to the "embodied nature" of the person telling the narrative, the context from which the narrative is created, the relationships between the narrative teller and others within the narrative, historical continuity, and the chronological organization of events. A story with a clear beginning, middle, and end is constructed from the narrative data. Polkinghorne makes the distinction between narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. Narrative analysis utilizes "narrative reasoning" by shaping data in a narrative form and doing an in-depth analysis of each narrative on its own, whereas analysis of narratives utilizes paradigmatic reasoning and analyzes themes across data that take the form of narratives.

:*Gee's approach of structural analysis focuses on the ways in which the narrative is conveyed by the speaker with particular emphasis given to the interaction between the speaker and the listener. In this form of analysis, the language that the speaker uses is the focus. This includes the language, the pauses in speech, discourse markers, and other similar structural aspects. In this approach, the narrative is divided into stanzas and each stanza is analyzed by itself and also in the way in which it connects to the other pieces of the narrative.

:*Jaber F. Gubrium's form of narrative ethnography features the storytelling process as much as the story in analyzing narrativity. Moving from text to field, he and his associate James A. Holstein present an analytic vocabulary and procedural strategies for collecting and analyzing narrative material in everyday contexts, such as families and care settings. In their view, the structure and meaning of texts cannot be understood separate from the everyday contexts of their production. Their two books--"Analyzing Narrative Reality" and "Varieties of Narrative Analysis" provide dimensions of an institutionally-sensitive, constructionist approach to narrative production.

  • There are a multitude of ways of organizing narrative data that fall under narrative analysis; different types of research questions lend themselves to different approaches.
  • While interpreting qualitative data, researchers suggest looking for patterns, themes, and regularities as well as contrasts, paradoxes, and irregularities. Story collecting as a form of narrative inquiry allows the research participants to put the data into their own words and reveal the latent "why" behind their assertions.

"Interpretive research" is a form of field research methodology that also searches for the subjective "why". Interpretive research, using methods such as those termed ""storytelling" or "narrative inquiry", does not attempt to predefine independent variables and dependent variables, but acknowledges context and seeks to "understand phenomena through the meanings that people assign to them."

Two influential proponents of a narrative research model are Mark Johnson and Alasdair MacIntyre. In his work on experiential, embodied metaphors, Johnson encourages the researcher to challenge "how you see knowledge as embodied, embedded in a culture based on narrative unity," the "construct of continuity in individual lives."

The seven "functions of narrative work" as outlined by Catherine Kohler Riessman:

  1. Narrative constitutes past experiences as it provides ways for individuals to make sense of the past.
  2. Narrators argue with stories.
  3. Persuading. Using rhetorical skill to position a statement to make it persuasive/to tell it how it "really" happened. To give it authenticity or 'truth'.
  4. Engagement, keeping the audience in the dynamic relationship with the narrator.
  5. Entertainment.
  6. Stories can function to mislead an audience.
  7. Stories can mobilize others into action for progressive change. For example:
  • Feminist scholars have found narrative analysis useful for data collection of perspectives that have been traditionally marginalized. The method is also appropriate to cross-cultural research. As Michael Brecher and Frank P. Harvey advocate, when asking unusual questions it is logical to ask them in an unusual manner.
  • Developmental psychology utilizes narrative inquiry to depict a child's experiences in areas such as self-regulation, problem-solving and development of self.
  • Social movements have used narrative analysis in their persuasive techniques.
  • Political practices. Stories are connected to the flow of power in the wider world. Some narratives serve different purposes for individuals and others, for groups. Some narratives overlap both individual experiences and social.
  • Promulgation of a culture: Narratives and storytelling are used to remember past events, reveal morals, entertain, relate to one another, and engage a community. Narrative inquiry helps to create an identity and demonstrate/carry on cultural values/traditions. Stories connect humans to each other and to their culture. These cultural definitions aid to make social knowledge accessible to people who are unfamiliar with the culture/situation. An example of this is how children in a given society learn from their parents and the culture around them.