Thinking with Stories

Abstract

As a relational epistemology and research methodology, narrative inquiry is one way that people come to know experience through story. Social workers are experienced in working with people’s stories, yet there is a dearth of literature where both social work and narrative inquiry are discussed alongside each other. This paper highlights the particular ways that a researcher commits to living and understanding a narrative view of experience as they engage in research that is relational. It explains some of the language that narrative inquirers use to describe their work, and uses examples from a social work doctoral dissertation to demonstrate the methodological touchstones of a social work narrative inquiry. It concludes with an invitation for social workers to consider narrative inquiry as a process that can guide and advance both clinical practice and social justice work.

Individuals Experience With the Discharge Process From Acute Mental Health Hospital Units

“…In the context of this MRP, Riessman (2008) discusses the importance of restorying within narrative approaches and how it allows the researcher to have an active role within the study. Within narrative approaches, it is critical that there is an active collaboration between the researcher and the participant to ensure that the participant's stories are shared from their perspective and that there is no bias towards how the information is recounted (Creswell & Poth, 2018;Shaw, 2017). This research study intends to use restorying to capture the lived experience of the participants through a thematic analysis approach.…”

“…Semi-structured interviewing involves the researcher developing a focus or topic area to be explored and creating a guide and a few sample questions to follow as the interview is conducted with each participant (Holloway & Wheeler, 2017). Within narrative research approaches, semi-structured interviews have been notably applied as they allow the participant to be in control of the conversation, and share their experience openly (Bryman, 2012;Shaw, 2017). However, it is important to note that within this approach sometimes the researcher has to steer the conversation to ensure that the purpose of the research can be achieved (Holloway & Wheeler, 2017).…”

Ethical Storytelling and Digital Narratives: Lessons Learned in Student-led Podcasts and Community Radio Partnerships

“…research and praxis, Shaw (2017) argues that social workers ought to engage with narrative inquiry in ways that center people's stories and give them as much control as possible over how their stories are told, cared for, and curated. While there is no one established way to employ a narrative approach, the unifying intent is to understand how storytellers make sense of events and actions in their lives (Riessman & Quinney, 2005).…”