Qualitative + Mixed methods/ Research design
Narrative inquiry
Study experience through stories over time
Narrative inquiry studies experience as lived and told through stories. It attends to time, social relationships and place, including the researcher's involvement in composing accounts. A narrative research design concerns the whole enquiry and its relationships; narrative analysis is a set of analytic approaches that may also be used within other designs.
WHEN IT FITS
Use when identity, professional development, transitions or educational experience are best understood through how people connect events across time, and sustained dialogue is feasible.
Strengths
- Preserves temporality and connections across experience
- Reveals how identity and meaning are constructed through telling
Limitations
- Memory and present concerns reshape accounts
- Published stories can create recognition and relationship risks
Know the boundary
A collection of quotations is not narrative enquiry; narrative plausibility does not establish population frequency.
USED ACROSS
Business & MBAPsychologyEducation