Narrative pathway
Co-ordinator: Dr Malcolm Reed
This pathway links visual and literary concepts of narrative with more sociological and ethnographic understandings of narrative methods of inquiry. It is designed to particularly suit practitioner researchers such as counsellors, psychotherapists, teachers, medical and health care professionals and others with a keen interest in innovative qualitative research methods.
All students take the Understanding Educational Research and Preparation for Dissertation units. Narrative students also complete all four of the following units:
- Narrative Inquiry
- Auto Ethnography
- Writing as Inquiry
- Narrative Interviewing
Also students select one optional unit, such as
Summary
This unit will critique 'narrative' as a root metaphor for understanding and describing human experience, provide participants with an overview of contemporary narrative research and develop critical awareness of the implications of particular methodological choices and positions. Debate, discussion and structured activities will facilitate the presentation, comparison, evaluation and justification of specific forms of narrative research at both micro levels (such as narrative analysis) and macro levels (such as narrative approaches to educational inquiry).
Indicative reading
- Clandinin, J and Connolly, M (2000) Narrative Inquiry: Experience and story in Qualitative Research, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
- Freeman, M (1998) Mythical Time, Historical Time and The Narrative Fabric Of The Self, In: Narrative Inquiry, 8(1) 27-50
- Riessman, C (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- McQuillan, M. (2000) The Narrative Reader, London: Routledge.
- Roberts B (2002) Biographical Research, Buckingham: Open University
- Speedy, J (2008) Narrative Inquiry and Psychotherapy, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan
Aims
- To explore and critique the 'narrative turn' in research methodology.
- To develop knowledge and critical understanding of a range of narrative 'positions' and their various histories and purposes.
- To enable participants to identify, articulate and situate their own developing approach(es) to narrative inquiry
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Engage in debate and discussion about narrative world views.
- Identify and describe different narrative approaches, their development, their purposes and their interrelationships.
- Present, articulate and situate their own developing approach to narrative inquiry.
Assessment
Either an assignment or video-paper, inclusive of inter-related images/film sequences or a written assignment of 4000 words.
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Summary
This unit focuses on auto-ethnographic (the use of portions of researcher life story in an ethnographic project) research. Participants will explore the ways in which autoethnographic texts both critique and illuminate the situated self, in socio-cultural contexts.
Indicative reading
- Bochner, A and Ellis, C (2001) Ethnographically Speaking, Alta Mira Press, CA
- Ellis, C (1997) Final Negotiations: A story of Love, Loss and Chronic Illness, Alta Mira Press, CA
- Frank, A. (1995) The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness and Ethics, University of Chicago Press, London
- Gullestad, M. (1996) Everyday Life Philosophers: Modernity, Morality and Autobiography in Norway, Scandinavian University Press, Oslo
- Reed-Danahay, D (1997) Auto/ethnography: Rewriting the self and the social. Berg, Oxford.
- Richardson, L. (1997) Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life, RUP, New Brunswick.
Aims
This unit aims to:
- Deepen participant's understanding and knowledge of reflexivity, ethnography and autobiographical narrative as vehicles for researching social life
- Position auto-ethnography as an interdisciplinary research genre and as a legitimate site for explorations of the interplay between selves, identities and cultures.
- Develop a critically informed appreciation of creative/evocative research studies of 'lived experience'.
- Provide opportunities to undertake a brief autoethnographic study
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Engage in debate and critical discussion about narrative world views.
- Identify and describe different narrative and life story approaches, their development, their purposes and their interrelationships.
- Present, articulate and situate their own approach to narrative and/or life story research.
Assessment
A live (video-taped) presentation plus critical commentary (no more than 1,000 words), plus a short (3,000 word) autoethnographic research study.
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Summary
This unit is designed to give participants a critical awareness of writing as a research method. The unit will explore, review and practice creative, evocative, poetic, experimental and engaging writing strategies as legitimate re-search sites. Fictionalised and creative research accounts, layered accounts, and poetic narratives will be included as examples within a range of written re-presentation methods. There will be opportunities to participate in critical reading groups and writers workshops and improve writing strategies and critical capacities.
Indicative reading
- Cixous, H (2004) The Writing Notebooks of Helene Cixous, London: Continuum
- Clough, P (2002) Narratives and Fictions in Educational Research. Buckingham: Open University Press
- Etherington, K (2002) Narrative ideas and stories in disability, in K.Etherington (Ed) Rehabilitation counselling in physical and mental health, London: Jessica Kingsley
- Richardson, L & St Pierre, E (2005 3rd ed) Writing: A method of Inquiry, in: NK Denzin & YS Lincoln (Eds) Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
- Speedy, J (2008) Crossing the borders between fiction and researching: Narrative Inquiry and Psychotherapy, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan
- Sparkes, A. (2002) Telling Tales in Sport & Physical Activity: A Qualitative Journey. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics Press
Aims
This unit aims to:
- Establish writing strategies as legitimate research sites
- Provide opportunities to experiment with writing and difference
- Explore aesthetic, evocative and poetic validities in experimental research writing
- Develop skills and confidence in both crafting and critiquing written texts
Learning Outcomes
It is anticipated that upon completion of this unit participants will have:
- Developed a knowledge and understanding of writing as a method of inquiry and of narrative ethics and aesthetics
- Identified, evaluated and experimented with a range of writing strategies in terms of research process and progress as well as ‘product’
- Demonstrated and situated their own developing writing style(s)
Assessment
A written or multimodal assignment equivalent to 4000 words will be required.
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Summary
This unit will introduce participants to the key concepts in research interviewing, including the ethical gathering, elicitation, selection, transcription and co-construction of life stories and personal and group narratives within interviews and conversations. Experiential workshops, including video-taped micro-skills teaching sessions, will provide opportunities to explore a range of interviewer positions and conversational styles. Lecture, debate and discussion will equip participants to identify and evaluate appropriate interview strategies and practices for specific projects.
Indicative reading
- Atkinson, P and Silverman, D (1997) Kundera's Immortality: The Interview Society and The Invention of Self. Qualitative enquiry, 3, (3) 304-25.
- Gubrium, J. (2003) Post-modern Interviewing, Sage, Thousand Oaks.
- Kvale, S (1996) InterViews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing, Sage, Thousand Oaks.
- Mischler, E. (1991) Research Interviewing Context and Narrative, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
- Monk, G, Winslade, J, Crockett, K and Epston, D. (1997) (Eds.) Narrative Therapy in Practice: The Archaeology of Hope. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
- Speedy, J (2006) Narrative Inquiry and life story research in counselling and psychotherapy, Palgrave, Houndsmill
Aims
These will include:
- Introducing key concepts and ethical issues in research conversations and interviews
- Identifying and exploring processes of eliciting, selecting and co-constructing narratives in, and from, conversation
- Providing experiential opportunities to engage in, and critique, a range of narrative interview positions and practices
- Participating in ethical decision-making about appropriate interview practices
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Describe and critique a range of conversational narrative practices and positions, including the elicitation, selection and co-construction of individual and collective narratives
- Demonstrate and critically evaluate their own research interviewing practices
- Identify and explain their own preferred approach to research interviewing within a specific context or study
Assessment
On successful completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Describe and critique a range of conversational narrative practices and positions, including the elicitation, selection and co-construction of individual and collective narratives
- Demonstrate and critically evaluate their own research interviewing practices
- Identify and explain their own preferred approach to research interviewing within a specific context or study
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Summary
This unit focuses on collective biography as a form of research methodology that encompasses collective data collection and analysis. Participants will critically explore the ways in which collective and collaborative writing methods generate and/or shed light on answers to research questions. The course will provide a vehicle in which to critically engage in a collective writing workshop.
There will be three strands to the course:
- reading and discussion of relevant texts,
- opportunities to engage in collective biographical methods
- the production of a short, individually annotated collective biography.
Indicative reading
- Davies, B and Gannon, S (2006) Doing Collective biography, Open University Press, Buckingham
- Davies, B Et Al (2004) The Ambivalent Practices Of Reflexivity, Qualitative Inquiry, 10: 360 - 389.
- Gannon, S (2001) (Re)presenting the Collective Girl: A Poetic Approach to a Methodological Dilemma, Qualitative Inquiry, 7: 787 - 800.
- Haug, F (1987) (ed) Female Sexualisation, Verso, New York
- Richardson, L (1997) Fields of play: constructing an academic life, Rutgers University press, New Brunswick
- Speedy, J (2005) The unassuming geeks: Collective biographies with young men who have considered suicide, in British Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 2 (2) 38-49
Aims
This unit aims to:
- Place constructions of culture and agency and subjective and objective knowledges under scrutiny
- Position collective biography as an interdisciplinary collaborative research genre and as a legitimate site for explorations of the interplay between selves, identities, communities, societies and cultures.
- Develop a critically informed appreciation of memory work and embodied/collective life writing as research tools
- Provide opportunities to undertake a short collective biography
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Engage in debate and critical discussion about collaborative and collective research methods
- Identify and describe different approaches to collaborative writing, their development, their purposes and their interrelationships.
- Present, articulate and situate their own approach to collaborative writing and collective biography as method>
Assessment
A short collective biography, presented together with individually contributed commentary, Total: 4000 words
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Summary
This unit is designed to give participants a critical awareness of visual research methods. The unit will explore, review and practice a of visual and multi-modal narrative inquiry methods. There will be opportunities to participate in critical inquiry groups and visual methods workshops and experience, situate and evaluate both researcher-led and participatory visual approaches to social inquiry.
Indicative reading
- Harrison, B (2002) Photographic visions and narrative Inquiry, in Narrative Inquiry 12(1) pp. 87-111.
- Pink, S, Laszlo, K and Afonso, A (2004) Working Images: Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography, London: Routledge
- Rose, G (2007 2nd ed) Visual Methodologies. London: Sage.
- Moving lives: www.photovoice.org
- .T. Van Leeuwen & C. Jewitt (eds) (2001) Handbook of Visual Analysis. London
- Springgay, S, Irwin, R and Kind, SW (2005) A/r/tography as Living Inquiry Through Art and Text, Qualitative Inquiry, 11 (6) 897-912
Aims
The unit has the following aims:
- To familiarize participants with a range of approaches to visual inquiry and representation
- To develop a critical understanding of the divergent and contingent practices of producing and analysing visual texts, positions and modalities
- To provide opportunities to experiment with researcher-led and participatory visual methods and situate these principles and practices.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit students will be able to:
- Describe and locate a range of visual inquiries
- Reflect critically on a range of applications of visual theory and practice
- Demonstrate and situate their own developing approach to visual inquiry
Assessment
A written or multimodal assignment equivalent to 4,000 words will be required, or a short (maximum 20 minutes) documentary film including critical commentary.
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Summary
This unit provides participants with the opportunity to present published articles or other short pieces for assessment alongside scholarly reflections on issues involved in writing the article as an opportunity for self-assessment. The self-assessment may be informed by making presentations on the work in any appropriate setting(s). The assessed piece of work would consist of the publication and a short commentary.
Indicative reading
- Casey B., Long A. 2002. Reconciling Voices. Journal Of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 9(5),, pp603-610.
- Gale, K and Wyatt, J (2008) Two men talking: A nomadic inquiry into collaborative writing. International Review of Qualitative Research Vol. 1, No.3, Nov. 2008, pp.361-380.
- Gowen, C. & Paravicini, S.(2005) 'Getting it out there: Young women take a stand against sexual violence.' International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 1:45-52.
- Leitch, R (2006) Outside the Spoon Drawer, Naked and Skinless in Search of My Professional Esteem: The Tale of an "Academic Pro", in: Qualitative Inquiry, 12: 353 - 364.
Aims
This aims to provide participants with an opportunity to:
- present suitable short publications for assessment by self and academic staff
- engage in the issues involved evaluating a publication produced for professional and academic purposes
- develop a self-assessment
- consider feedback elicited by the publication and associated presentations or other means of dissemination
Participants who are not already experienced or skilled in making presentations of their work will be supported with the aim of making them more proficient in demonstrating these skills.
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to demonstrate:
- carefully considered self-evaluation of one of their own publications presented in a appropriate scholarly way
- engagement with the complex issues of evaluating publications
- evaluation of intent against achievement
- engagement with any responses to the publication and the development of considered responses
- an ability to audit relevant presentation skills and identify any areas requiring further professional or personal development
Assessment
The submission of the publication accompanied by short commentary that undertakes a self-assessment concerning issues raised by the process of writing or production of the publication. The commentary will usually be between 1500 and 2000 words.
Work presented for this unit must be substantially different from that presented for any other unit. For example, a publication based on an earlier assignment may not be presented for a second time in order to gain further credit in this unit.
Guidelines will be developed to ensure that candidates who submit publications with joint or multiple authorship are eligible for the award of a fair and proportionate amount of credit based on their verifiable contribution.
Candidates are not normally permitted to gain more than 40 credits towards their award from any combination of published work, pilot project or special individual study.
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Go to Course structure for other units.
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