Paul Mercieca
School of Education
Curtin University
[email protected]
9266 4224
Narrative Research
As qualitative* research it is the study of how people
experience their world and of the meanings they
attribute to experiences.
It has been used in literature, history, art, film,
theology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology,
sociology, sociolinguistics, health and education.
The scope of the narrative
• an entire life
• a life episode
• emerging series of stories
Key characteristics of narrative
• Theme
• Plot – predicaments, resolutions
• Structure – beginning, middle, end
• Characters
• First person narration
• Setting and Time
Types of Narrative Research
• Autobiographies
• Biographies
• Life writing
• Personal narratives
• Narrative interviews
• Life stories & life histories
• Oral histories
• Autoethnographies
Narrative Research in Education
Increased emphasis on:
 teacher reflection and teacher knowledge - what
teachers know, how they think, how they develop
and how they make decisions in the classroom
 empowering teacher voices through collaborative
research
Narrative Research Process
 Set aside a lot of time
 Identify a phenomenon to explore and select relevant
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individuals
Review literature, identify conceptual framework and pose
research questions.
Consider the researcher-participant relationship (access to
the research site, reciprocity, equality and ethics)
Devise data collection and analysis methods
In restorying, collaborate with the participant to validate
accuracy of analysis
Data Collection
 Often via interviews (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996) and
reliant on participant recollections or via written
documents by the participant
 Sometimes using emails, diaries, journals, lesson
plans, newsletters,, photographs, notes, cards etc.
that might relate to the specific phenomenon under
investigation.
Transcription
Some prefer not to delegate transcription to be sure there is
not selective excision as a result of difficulty in hearing what
was said.
Interviews taken in sympathetic and relevant surroundings*
where informants feel ‘in the mood’ to talk can involve
background noise and occasional interruptions.
The other key reason for personally transcribing interviews
is a conviction that transcription is a first stage in analysis.
My transcription conventions
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Names changed to pseudonyms.
Turns initialled and numbered – PM1, PF1, PM2, PF2 etc.
Lines within turns numbered - PM1:4 etc.
Spaces between turns
Question marks for interrogatives/statements if appropriate
Exclamation marks used sparingly
Italics and bolding not used to mark emphasis
[ ] Brackets were not used for overlapping
[ ] Brackets used for ellipsis – for reader information
Single quotes for irony, songs, first mentions of places & some colloquialisms
Double quotes for inner quotations.
Numbers and words used to represent numbers.
Stretched turns and pauses represented by ...........
Coughs, sniffs, intakes of breath and sighs not included
External interruptions bracketed ( ) and line spaced
Gaze, gesture and other non-verbal aspects not transcribed
Malapropisms not amended
‘Gotta’ , ‘dunno’ ,’ ‘cause’ and ‘em’ here they sounded as such
‘Gunna’ represented by the more common ‘gonna’
‘t’ was used for the common Northern English ‘to the’
Triangulation
 Vital for trustworthiness
 Criticisms of fictionality best countered by use of
multiple data sources and collaborative negotiation
of the written account
 In moving to the general from the particular be
modest in the claims made.
Narrative Analysis
 Transcription - this is always a form of translation
and selection - what is included and excluded?
How long should the recording be to make it
feasible?
 Retranscription: Focus on key elements of the story,
using codes.
 Restorying - organising the key codes into a
sequence
Key aspects of stories
 How Scripts become Stories
Scripts are the core of personal narratives (Labov & Waletzky, 1967).
They are used for all kinds of familiar routines like getting dressed.
Stories expand on scripts by incorporating particular events and
adding evaluative elements which reveal the narrator's viewpoint
Thus stories will evaluate a script as good, bad, successful, tragic,
surprising etc.
 In analysis focus on
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how elements are sequenced,
why some elements are evaluated differently
how the past, present and future interact
Setting, characters’ actions, motivations, problem and resolutions
Labovian Analysis
This is a touch structural but a useful start, looking at 6 story elements
- abstract, orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution and coda.
This approach assumes elements are revealed entirely by clause
relations, leaving out attention to participant interaction.
Labov’s approach (1997) also includes attention to
reportability, credibility, causality, praise/blame, viewpoint
and objectivity. These aspects form two groups of three.
Repor
Praise
& Blame
tabilit
y
Report
Reportability
ability
Credibilit
Credibility
y
Causalit
Causality
y
Credibil
Viewpoint
ity
Causalit
Objectivity
y
Rhetorical Analysis of Narrative
 Burke’s ‘dramatistic’ pentad (1969) - act, scene, agent, agency,
and purpose - looks at rhetoric via grammatical resources
deployed – how people explain their actions.
 There is an overlap with Labov - ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’,
but agency and purpose pay more attention to ‘how’ and ‘why’.
Pentadic ratios can be used to define the central relationship
of any story:
Act-Agent
Act-Agency
Act-Scene
Act-Purpose
Agent-Act
Agent-Agency
Agent-Scene
Agent-Purpose
Agency-Act
Agency-Agent
Agency-Scene
Agency-Purpose
Scene-Act
Scene-Agent
Scene-Agency
Scene-Purpose
Purpose-Act
Purpose-Agent
Purpose-Agency
Purpose-Scene
Dramaturgical Analysis - Goffman
 Does the narrative spring from a ‘Master Narrative’?
 Goffman’s ‘dramaturgical’ approach (1959) attends to the way
stories are performed. He built on Burke’s pentad and looked at
‘framing’ (1974) - the way individual experiences unconsciously
promote or conceal particular perceptions of reality. Studies of the
media stress more deliberation (Gitlin, 1980, Entman, 1993) , but
this can present frames as limiting rather than enabling.
 Identification of frames can be conjectural, but first and third persons
plural and generalizing synecdoches such as collective singulars
(eg ‘the lads’) can be revealing (Reisigl & Wodak 2001, p.83)
Bell and Riessman
Bell (1988) analysed use of language – how people say
what they do and who they are.
Riessman (1993, 2002) focussed on metaphors/idioms,
general use of language, flashbacks, flashforwards, turning
points and asides.
Blending Narrative/Rhetorical/Dramaturgical Analysis
Such a syndetic procedure can involve the following:
•Identification of personal timelines for informants
•Identification of narrative segments or ‘stories’
•Reduction of stories to a core
•Analysis of stories into patterns
•Micro-analysis of key segments
•Exploration of thematic/logical connections between stories
•Identification of causal and dynamic aspects of story-building
•Analysis of how people say what they do and who they are
•Examination of the connections between talker and listener
•Inclusion of interviewer utterances in analysis
Northern Soul research
‘Pat Fisher’ Interview
INFORMANT DATE
AND
TIME
PLACE
LENGTH
PAT
FISHER
DURTY NELLY’S
PUB, SHAFTO
LANE
29 MINS
04.04.06
6.00PM
NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NOTABLE USES OF
OF
OF
OF
COLLOQUIAL,
WORDS TURNS
TOPICS METAPHORICAL
OR IDIOMATIC
LANGUAGE
4041
68
71
32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcjDAufhqwQ
My analysis
Personal Northern Soul (NS) timelines for the informants as for
example with ‘Pat Fisher’ (PF) below:
1958:
1968-9:
1972-3:
1974:
1981:
1992:
1994-5:
1995:
1996:
1997:
Born in Chorley, Lancashire
Hears ‘Road Runner’ at a fairground in Chorley
Starts going to local youth club
Starts going to Wigan Casino
Stops going to Wigan Casino, which closes.
Emigrates to Perth, Western Australia
Discovers Goldmine CDs & starts collecting again
Discovers Sydney & Melbourne scenes via internet
Runs first soul night at Henry Afrika’s in Subiaco
Runs first soul night at Irish Club in Subiaco in
Macro-narrative 1
• Abstract – You, the informant, are into NS here in WA.
• Orientation – You are at a venue for an NS night with others
on Friday, Saturday etc.
• Complication – You got into NS, maybe dropped out, then got
back into it again.
• Evaluation – You get many meanings and experiences
through involvement in NS.
• Resolution – You are still into NS here in Perth, now, running
your own soul nights.
• Coda – The interview has finished. We could both go home or
into the club.
Macro-narrative 2
• Abstract – You, the informant, are into NS here in WA and
I am undertaking research into this area
• Orientation – We are at a NS venue or pub this
afternoon/evening for an interview. An NS night may be in
progress.
• Complication – I ask some questions and you give me
some answers. This may become like a conversation and
you tell some stories about your involvement in NS
• Evaluation – You get many meanings and experiences
through your involvement in NS and may choose to
articulate them to me. I attempt to interpret your
evaluation.
• Resolution – The interview has finished. I have taped it
• Coda – We could both go home or into the club to dance.
I will listen to the interview later and transcribe it.
Micro-narratives
• Micro-narrative 1: How he got into NS - ‘The Epicentre: it was
all around me’ PM1 to PF5
• Micro-narrative 2: What he gets out of NS - ‘The scene in
general…’ PM19 to PF23
• Micro-narrative 3: How he dropped out of it - ‘Retirement:
burnout’ PM26 to PF33
• Micro-narrative 4: How he got back into it - ‘The Breakthrough:
second time around’ PF39 to PF46
• Micro-narrative 5: How he established NS nights at The Irish
Club - ‘Putting feelers around: let’s start something going here’
P46 to PF52
Labovian analysis of micro-narrative 1 ‘The Epicentre’
(ABSTRACT/ORIENTATION→)
PM1: The basic first question is how did you get into it and when...?
PF1: Yeah, I’ve been asked this a few times…and I can trace it back to….you
know….the travelling
fairgrounds used to come round and they had the ‘Waltzer’
PM2: In Chorley?
(ORIENTATION/COMPLICATION→)
PF2: Yeah….they used to go all over the north of England and they used to play Motown…that’s when I first
heard Junior Walker and it was probably ‘Road Runner’…it was the first time I heard any soul music…to speak
of…apart from the pop soul music. I’d never heard this stuff before and I guess that was the first time I really
heard this stuff before and I guess that was the first time I really took note of it and I decided I wanted to
pursue it a bit more.
PM3: So what year was that then?
PF3: I’m figuring…I’ve had a few sleeps since then…I reckon it….I was probably about 14 so that would be ’72
….then I went and started going to the local youth club and there was the Motown records and then there’s
other stuff. I asked about what it was and they said they called it Northern Soul…and it must’ve been after
1972…maybe 1973…’cause the term was only coined in 1972 and the lads were doing this crazy
dancing…like Olympic floor routines…and I was perhaps not totally hooked but certainly very interested at that
point and then of course I started going to ‘Wigan [Casino]’, which was just around the corner…..the first time
was 1974…ah…just after the first anniversary…guess that would be October…and then that was it! I knew I
was going to be into it for the foreseeable future. (←RESOLUTION)
(CODA→)
PM4: So that was in’72, it had already started hadn’t it, the scene had been around for quite a while.
PF4: ’72 that was the ‘Torch’ era, the ‘Twisted Wheel’ had closed so there was a short break when the Torch
filled the gap and then Wigan started in’73.
(EVALUATION→)
PM5: So you kind of worked it out for yourself, you weren’t introduced by brothers or…?
PF5: No, no, no…I was a single child…Yeah, I was close to the epicentre…so it was all around me.
• Labov’s six elements are all present, if not totally discrete
• Evaluation follows coda, as a brief reprise
• Elements exist within elements, eg the evaluative comments
within the complication in PF 2:4-6 - ‘I guess that was the first
time I really heard this stuff before and I guess that was the first
time I really took note of it’
• This fractal structure reflects the structure of information from
utterance to clause to paragraph etc.. Each segment has its own
given/new structure. The topic is what is known or given, the
comment is what is new or unknown (Halliday, 1994, p. 299).
The abstract and orientation run together, co-constructed by
interviewer and informant. Pat’s story appears partly rehearsed he indicates he has been asked the same question before. His
story is his personal ‘foundation’ myth, his own NS cosmology.
As the complication develops in PF2, Pat tells of his move from a
passive to more active role, pronouns moving from ‘they’ to ‘I’ and
verbs from receptive to active:
PF2: Yeah….they used to go all over the north of England and
they used to play Motown…that’s when I first heard Junior Walker
and it was probably ‘Road Runner’…it was the first time I heard
any soul music…to speak of…apart from the pop soul music. I’d
never heard this stuff before and I guess that was the first time I
really heard this stuff before and I guess that was the first time I
really took note of it and I decided I wanted to pursue it a bit more.
The first group of Labov’s aspects - reportability, credibility and
causality - are closely linked.
Pat’s micro-narrative 1 satisfies the basic criteria for reportability - the
most significant aspects are revealed and the story has a resolution.
For crediblity, Pat laconically avoids over-dramatisation and is not
overly definite about dates – ‘I’ve had a few sleeps since then’ –
In terms of causality, Pat tells of a chain of events leading to his
involvement in NS – fairground, youth club, Wigan Casino.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
q5BjusPO3-8
Rhetorical Analysis adapted from Burke via Bell
The people in the travelling fairground, the youth club dancers,
Junior Walker and NS itself are all agents, but Pat is clearly the
main agent in his own story/drama.
‘Entelechy’, (Burke, 1966, p. 19) ex[;ores how systems of language
motivate people to strive towards mastery in areas they perceive as
crucial to their identity. People make sense of the world and adopt
roles via ‘terministic screens’, grids of intelligibility.
For Pat, the coining of the term NS in 1971 is crucial – he is drawn
into a world of NS symbols – ‘I really took note of it and I decided I
wanted to pursue it a bit more’ (PF2:6).
His sense of agency becomes more active and soon he projects
himself into ‘the foreseeable future’ (PF3:11), determined to learn
and master the symbols of NS, which becomes an motivational
system. He masters record collecting and dancing and eventually
becomes a DJ, organizing national events and a website.
Pat’s agency is still to be seen in the context of the particular influence
of the NS in the area close to Wigan.
The ‘Scene-Agent’ ratio shows the magnetic influence of the NS scene
in South Lancashire and of ‘Wigan Casino’, NS’s famous venue. Pat
admits this – ‘I was close to the epicentre…so it was all around me’.
Dramaturgical Analysis adapted from Goffman via Bell
Pat’s involvement in NS draws on different ‘master-frames’ or metanarratives - enduring cultural themes. He aligns these different frames
into a comfortable fit, by ‘frame bridging’
The first overt master-frame that Pat uses is ‘Group Solidarity’.
In PF 18 he describes how ‘there was no trouble…never any
fights…never saw one scrap…everybody was there for the same
reason……..the love of the music and the scene in general. I can’t just
single out dancing or record collecting…it’s probably a combination of
everything…the friendliness and camaraderie has always been there’.
Following Bell (1988), Riessman (1993, 2002) focussed on how people say what
they do and who they are
Look at the Pat Fisher transcript from PM1 to PF16 and see if you can find
examples of:
Flashbacks
Flashforwards
Turning points
Analysis adapted directly from Bell and Riessman
Pat’s turns are short, but he tells his story by outlining the details
and instances of his involvement in NS.
There is no present tense as dramatic narrative and only one
example of direct speech, but he uses the past perfect for flashback
in PF2/PF4 and present perfect for flashforward in PF16, showing a
sense of dynamism, mobility and connection to the present.
He identifies many turning-points eg his first visit to Wigan Casino
‘.....and then that was it! I knew I was going to be in it for the
foreseeable future’ PF3:10-11
The turning-points in the informant narrative mark transformative
points where cultural production of meaning and personal creation
of meaning are fused.
Other areas of language to explore included metaphors/idioms,
general use of language and asides.
Thematic Analysis
– as an extra dimension
 Themes add to the complexity of a story
 Themes add depth to the insight about understanding an
individual’s experiences
 Thematic analysis can be incorporated into the overall
research design, though by itself it tends to fragment
informant experiences into code-able categories
Mercieca, P.D., Chapman A.,
& O'Neill. M. (2013). To the
Ends of the Earth: Northern
Soul and Southern Nights in
Western Australia. Lanham,
Maryland: University Press of
America.
REFERENCES
Bell, S.E. (1988). Becoming a political woman: The reconstruction and interpretation
of experience through stories. In A.D. Todd & S. Fisher (Eds.) Gender and discourse:
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research strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Entman, R.M. (1993). Framing: Towards clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal
of Communication,43(4), 51-8.
Gitlin, T. (1980). The whole world is watching: Mass media in the making and
unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA & London, U.K.:
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Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY:
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Goffman, E. (1974). Frame Analysis: An essay on the organization of experience.
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Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. 2nd edition.
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Mercieca, P.D., Chapman A., & O'Neill. M. (2013). To the Ends of the Earth:
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Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2001). Discourse and discrimination. Rhetorics of racism
and anti-Semitism. London & New York: Routledge.
Riessman, C. (1993). Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park: Sage.
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