Question

A researcher is planning to conduct a narrative study on the way non-traditional learners define their social role on the college campus. After this, the researcher would then construct his/her narrative of the study, using such storytelling conventions as scene, characters, and plot. Discuss the data collection instruments appropriate for this study. How would a narrative approach differ from a phenomenological approach for this topic?

Answer 1

• Several methods of data collection would be available for this type of undertaking. Personal interviews using face to face, telephone, or email, and using a combination of semi structure and open-ended questions might help the researcher determine if some sort of theme develops from the guided questions format. Also the researcher could make field notes or use video recordings as he/she observed non-verbal communication such as gestures, signs in order to understand the elements of the conversation.
• The narrative approach allows for personal units of meaning of words and phrases that are expressed by the individual as they detail thought processes and emotions allowing for themes to emerge as the story unfolds grounded in the experience.
• Additionally, the narrative is a story that includes a beginning, middle and end including elements of a story such as scene, characters and the plot so that causal inference may become apparent. Finally, although the phenomenological approach is also interested in the human experience it captures the essence of the story without focusing on order of events by attempting to explain characteristics and how they came to be.