Citation

Addison, Joanne. “Narrative As Method and Methodology in Socially Progressive Research.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research, edited by Katrina Powell and Pamela Takayoshi, Hampton Press Inc., 2012, 373-383

Summary

Joanne Addison starts her article with a reflection on her experiences as a foster parent. This theme weaves throughout her article, and she uses it to underscore the importance of socially progressive research through narrative inquiry. Throughout the piece, several written narratives surrounding the condition of a baby that is in some (disputable) form of danger. She uses this to underscore the importance of multiple viewpoints and narrative contextualization. Whether or not this danger constitutes abuse is ultimately an issue of misinterpretation amongst narratives, and this is central to the article.

She illustrates how differing written narratives surrounding a situation and their impact shows the importance of including a multiplicity of personal narratives, especially when searching for or constructing the components of a lived situation. Addison highlights the work of sociolinguists William Labov and Joshua Waletzky to underpin her position. In particular, she cites, “Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience.” The work of Labov and Waletzky argues for prizing the narrative work of real people aside from just the “expert storytellers”. In order to sort the data, they posit five common structural components of personal narratives to study; the orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution, and the coda.

After these details, Addison moves towards distinguishing narrative inquiry from narrative analysis. She argues that not all narrative analysis is narrative inquiry. Narrative inquiry rests more heavily on empirical evidence gleaned from personal narratives within the context of events. She posits that it is first and foremost the researcher’s job to critically analyze their own position in relation to the subject of study. This woven network of inquiry through researcher and writer is effective in contextualizing experience and avoiding the pervasive issue of, what boils down to, the victors choosing the appropriate facts and information to share.

Quote Bank

“In the end, the goal of narrative inquiry is to create friction. Friction is little more than the movement of one body in relation to another. We are all always in a state of friction as the worlds we project slide, scrape and bump along each other.” (382)

“In more recent work, Labov (2006) expands on this definition claiming that “the very concept of narrative demands that we recognize as an essential first step the decision to report an event, and the entailment that it is judged to be reportable” (p. 2).” (375)

“It is not narrative in and of itself that can lead to socially progressive research but rather narrative as its entailment are complicated and reoriented via other data that can lead to socially progressive research.” (378)

“Case-based narrative inquiry can lead to socially progressive research not only because it can lead us to newly reportable events but also because it can lead to different evaluations of existing complications within a narrative especially when prevailing evaluations are rooted in cultural norms and assumptions, not facts.” (380

Reflection

This piece of writing really resonated with me. It is a perspective that I find really valuable as I prepare my pedagogical research design and explore the ever-expanding critical lens of New Materialism. I was already planning on executing a research design that centered around narrative, around a central piece of text that we, as a class, would return to for analysis throughout the quarter. This article helped inspire, what I think, is a much more nuanced and interesting pedagogical research design. I think that the move towards “strong objectivity” is really important, and I want to incorporate personal narrative writing in many forms throughout the coming quarters as a compliment to the already existent curriculum.

As the article states, “in the end, the goal of narrative inquiry is to create friction” (382). This converges with Donna Harraway’s conception of situated knowledge, and it is a principle that I hope to carry forward into my classroom. I think that it is really important to gather, interpret, and share our own situated knowledges, our own internal objectivity. I like this move that the author makes towards promoting this socially progressive research. I think the point she makes about, essentially, the victor writing the narrative is an important thing to remember moving forward. I think that making this connection clear for students is really important as well. So often, people can discount the profound ability personal writing has to create meaning, and, more specifically, in this context, the ability to serve as a viable and functional socially progressive research tool.

As I began the creation of my pedagogical research design, I was unsure about how to incorporate data and measure the progress that my implementation of a central text alongside returning to personal narrative (much in the vein of the literacy narrative) could have. Now, with a more nuanced understanding of some of the ways in which narrative inquiry can be executed, I feel excited to implement my research design in winter quarter. Through the analysis of personal narratives in connection to a central text throughout the quarter, I hope to glean some really powerful information on its efficacy. Regardless of outcome, I look forward to encouraging students to write more, and, selfishly, I am really curious to read more about their writing lives (and lives in general) through the research.