Summary

In this chapter we sought first to position ourselves and our work within the field of narrative inquiry. We then situated narrative research within the diverse family of interpretive approaches to research broadly termed as qualitative research. We described the applicability of narrative approaches to research, specifically outlining the critical and emancipatory possibilities that narrative affords. Through our discussions of critical events that occur within a narrative, we highlighted the importance of individual and collective narratives in giving traditionally marginalized communities the ability to tell their stories. Throughout this chapter we have underscored the creative potential of narrative approaches and the profound understandings that narrative approaches to research provide, while closely scrutinizing the stories that we and our participants tell about ourselves, each other, and the world.

We provided personal examples of our real-world experiences as narrative inquirers working with historically marginalized groups. Collecting these stories led us to delineate the differences between specific modes of narrative research (biography, autobiography, life history research, and oral history). And by recognizing these differences we emphasized our thinking about researcher reflexivity, or, more plainly stated, the relationship between the researcher (listener) and the researched (storyteller)—or in some cases where the line is blurred between the two. We also discussed the challenges and limitations of conducting narrative research by outlining narrative inquiry's relationship to conventional quantitative research concepts, for example, generalizability, validity, reliability, and objectivity. In this chapter we aimed to describe narrative research, seeking to highlight the possibilities that narrative inquiry offers researchers through the power of stories.