Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs

Narrative Inquiry: Introduction

According to Michael Connelly and Jean Clandinin (1990),

Narrative inquiry, the study of experience as story, is first and foremost a way for thinking about experience. Narrative inquiry as a methodology entails a view of the phenomenon. To use narrative inquiry methodology is to adopt a particular view of experience as phenomenon under study.(quoted in Clandinin & Rosiek, 2007, p. 38)

The comments of narrative researchers Clandinin and Connelly illustrate both the epistemic (ways of knowing) nature and the ontological (ways of being) possibilities associated with the stories that we tell about our world. Throughout history the ability of these stories to shape meaning has been immeasurable. Numerous scholars, ...