Narrative+Tools

Summary of ASHE 2011 presentation: Framing Qualitative Research: Narrative Tools and Constructs Karri A. Holley & Julia E. Colyar

Students of qualitative research have long struggled with the question of how to represent social realities through the academic text. The research and writing processes are marked by a series of choices researchers must address. In recent years, the ways in which data are conceived, pursued, and represented have led to the development of innovative presentation styles and strategies (Richardson, 1997). Such changes have complicated the decisions students and scholars make about their research projects and presentation styles. According to Lincoln (1997), contemporary qualitative scholars must therefore be more deliberate in making these choices.

In this paper, we argue that narrative theory can be used to inform the decisions students and scholars make about their texts. Ultimately, we suggest that narrative constructs can be useful in teaching qualitative research methods; in particular, we offer narrative elements as a means to help students and scholars organize how they think about texts.

In the first part of the paper, we offer a brief review of narrative theory, focusing on narrative as both a process and a product (Franzosi, 1998; Polkinghorne, 1988; Bruner, 1986). Narrative theory, which derives from New Criticism and Structuralism, offers a framework for understanding the elements of a text. In addition, narrative is imagined as a research methodology and a lens through which we make sense of the world (Polkinghorne, 1988; Reissman, 1993). In the first section, we also offer a definition of the central elements of character, plot, and focalization: Characters are significant elements of a narrative, as they cause or undergo the events of a story (Bal, 1985). Plot is used to organize the events depicted in a research story. Focalization refers to the point of view through which a story is told. We provide examples of each of these elements in use by examining current texts (Tierney, 2009; Sacks, 2007).

In the second part of the paper, we discuss the use of narrative in a qualitative classroom. We particularly explore narrative as a theoretical orientation, a reading strategy, and a means of exploring researcher power and position. We conclude with a discussion of how narrative elements can assist students and scholars as they construct completed projects. An awareness of narrative constructs highlights the role of the researcher as a storyteller, and offers a set of tools which can be used to make deliberate, careful choices about texts. 