Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs

Narrative Inquiry: Critical Event Approach

We use narrative inquiry to understand human existence through personal stories. Hearing multiple people narrate living similar experiences, stories that talk to and against one another, sometimes highlights contradictory understandings of any given topic and always underscores the varied complexities of lived experiences. We use raw narratives, the interviewees' words reflected as accurately as when they interacted in the interviews, so that readers can draw their own conclusions before seeing others' (and our own) interpretations. As opposed to providing a basis for generalizing or affording a standard account of an experience, raw narratives highlight distinctive features and details that may be overlooked ...