1 / 12

Researching experience: narrative as a methodology in social Science research

Dr. Simone McCaughren University College Cork 21 st June 2011. Researching experience: narrative as a methodology in social Science research. Outline of presentation. Background to the research Research design Narrative: a conceptual framework Methodology of narrative

nura
Download Presentation

Researching experience: narrative as a methodology in social Science research

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Dr. Simone McCaughren University College Cork 21st June 2011 Researching experience:narrative as a methodology in social Science research

  2. Outline of presentation • Background to the research • Research design • Narrative: a conceptual framework • Methodology of narrative • Challenges of method • Conclusion/questions/discussion

  3. Background to the research • Researcher’s biography • Practice & academia – straddling two worlds – practitioner or researcher? • Rationale for undertaking the research • Designing the research in light of the above

  4. Research design • Narrative methodology • Interviews carried out over a period of 1.5 years • More than 30 adoptive parents – joint interviews • Sampling strategy included criterion & snowball sampling • 7 adoption agencies nationwide

  5. What is meant by narrative? “Narratives (stories) in the human sciences should be defined provisionally as discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offer insights about the world and/or people’s experiences of it” Hinchman & Hinchman (1997)

  6. Narrative: A conceptual framework • Narratives & adoption discourse • Grand narratives – Church & State • Narrative of romanticism • Power of narrative/people telling stories • Contemporary adoption discourse

  7. Methodology of narrative – why? • Represents a move away from the more traditional qualitative research methods • Adoption’s history is all about unheard voices • Stories are an integral part of adoption discourse • People tell stories all the time • Stories provide coherence and continuity to one’s experience and have a central role in our communication with others • Personal narratives, are people’s identity • Fit with post-modern paradigm

  8. The narrative interview • Different approaches to narrative interviews • The narrative interview (Schutze 1977; Riemann and Schutze, 1987)* - summarised by Flick, 1998 • Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) Chamberlayne et al, 2000; Wengraf 2001

  9. The narrative interview contd. • 1. Initiation - GNQ • 2. Main narration • 3. Questioning phase • 4. Concluding talk Table from Bauer & Gaskell (2000) ‘Basic phases of the narrative interview’

  10. Challenges • Systematic violation of the role expectations of both participants • Narrative research is usually carried out with small sample size but the quantity of data gathered is large • No two interviews are alike - extremely rich data • Skills & integrity of the researcher

  11. Conclusion • A challenging approach that needs to be developed and refined • A new skill • Training for BNIM • Pilot the research method • Very rich material - analysis • Participants offered their insights into the lived experience of O.A. • Would I have approach research in a different way? .....where do I start??!! • Any questions?

  12. Thank you! • Email: s.mccaughren@ucc.ie

More Related