Rescuing narrative from qualitative research

Atkinson, Paul; Delamont, Sara

doi:10.1075/ni.16.1.21atk

Cited by 216 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Narrative analysis has become one of the most widespread research tools in the social sciences as a result of the “narrative turn,” but most of the social-scientific work spurred by this new interest focuses on the content of stories and regards them as unmediated expressions of the narrator's self and as accounts that offer information about the interviewees' experiences. As noted by Atkinson and Delamont (2006), the unproblematic equation of narrative talk with self expression and of narrative content with facts and events derives from the neglect of the performance aspects of narrative and of the interview as a communicative context (see also Wortham 2001). Such neglect is widespread in the analysis of interview narratives, though some recent research has started to redress this tendency.…”

Section: Narratives In Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma

Fina¹,

Perrino²

2011

Lang. Soc.

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The popularity of interviewing as a method of data collection in the social sciences is a recognized fact. In their survey of qualitative research paradigms and methods, Denzin and Lincoln (2004:353) declare that “the interview is the favorite methodological tool of the qualitative researcher.” And, describing data-collection techniques in sociolinguistics and dialectology, Fuller (2000:388) argues that “much of the data in the field comes from interviews.” These assertions are hardly surprising given the central role that interviews have assumed as an essential part of the toolkit of the qualitative researcher since the early decades of the twentieth century (Fontana & Frei 2004). Interviews are the most common cross-disciplinary research instruments since they are widely used by investigators in fields as diverse as education, anthropology, sociology, social psychology, and social history, where they serve as vital research methods alone or in combination with other techniques such as participant observation. Given the centrality of interpretive and qualitative research paradigms in sociolinguistics, ethnography, linguistic anthropology, and narrative studies, the interview has acquired an even more prominent place for investigation in these disciplines. However, this research method and tool for collecting data has been the object of extremes of confidence and criticism. On one side there are those who try to erase the interactional context of the interview, believing that it is both possible and desirable to make participants forget about the event so that interviewers can access their “natural” behavior. On the opposite side there are those who argue that interviews are “inauthentic” and “artificial” contexts for data collection and therefore it is best to avoid them completely. In both extremes, the interview ends up being a problem to overcome. One unfortunate result of these attitudes has been that the interview as a real communicative event has been understudied. Our objective with this special issue is to contribute to redressing this tendency by drawing attention to the need for, and advantages of, the research interview as a legitimate interactional encounter, and taking narrative as our focus. In doing this we build on a small but significant cross-disciplinary body of mostly recent scholarship that has analyzed a variety of issues related to the use of semi-structured and open-ended interviews in qualitative research, and that has recognized the crucial importance of placing interview data in context.

show abstract

Section: Narratives In Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma

Fina¹,

Perrino²

2011

Lang. Soc.

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Bruner 1987, Polkinghorne 1988, McAdams 1993), and of the ubiquity of elicited narratives in sociolinguistic investigation (Labov 1972a, Schiffrin 1996). However, as Atkinson and Delamont (2006) have underscored, the tendency of many studies is to treat the interview as a kind of transparent context, as demonstrated by the absence of interviewers' comments on many interview transcripts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Researcher and informant roles in narrative interactions: Constructions of belonging and foreign-ness

Fina¹

2011

Lang. Soc.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article I focus on the influence of researcher/informant roles on the types of narratives that are produced and on the ways in which storytelling interactions are managed in research contexts. In particular, I show that storytelling activities and story types both reflect and shape relationships among participants based, among other factors, on their local management of situational and portable identities. I argue that one important methodological consequence of the analysis is the recognition of the fact that all data produced in interaction (including interviews) are irreducibly context-bound and that therefore an analytical separation between observer and observed is impossible. I also discuss how a treatment of the research event and of storytelling in it as a real interactional encounter can shed light on issues related to the insider-outsider status of the researcher and the Observer's Paradox (Labov 1972b). (Narrative, interviews, interactional roles, immigrants, identities).

show abstract

“…In other words, in the process of narrative knowledging, researchers actually do things with narratives. Atkinson and Delamont (2006) claim that this does not always happen, because some researchers, they argue, are ''complicit in the general culture of 'the interview society, ' and are too ready to celebrate narratives and biographical accounts, rather than subjecting them to systematic analysis'' (p. 164). Pavlenko (2007) points out that inadequate analyses may also be the result of some researchers, particularly novices, not knowing what to do with narratives once they have collected them.…”

Section: Analyzing Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative Knowledging in TESOL

Barkhuizen¹

2011

TESOL Quarterly

171

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the realm of storytelling I'm a little more at ease, and since stories, unlike scientific formulations, don't expect (reject, in fact) clear-cut answers, I can muddle around in this territory without feeling bullied into providing solutions or advice. Alberto Manguel (2007) Putting together this special-topic issue involved numerous rounds of abstract and article reviewing. Many people have given very generously of their time and expertise to ensure that this process has been thorough and systematic. It has been a pleasure working with them. I would like to thank the following reviewers for their excellent work, especially

show abstract

Rescuing narrative from qualitative research

Cited by 216 publications

References 0 publications

Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma

Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma

Researcher and informant roles in narrative interactions: Constructions of belonging and foreign-ness

Narrative Knowledging in TESOL

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About