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Narrative inquiry is both phenomenon and methodology for understanding experience. In this article, we further develop our understandings of narrative inquiry as a practice of social justice. In particular, we explore ways in which social justice issues can be re-framed and re-imagined, with attention to consequent action. Drawing on work alongside Kevlar, a youth who left school early, we explore our understandings. Being grounded in pragmatism and emphasizing relational understanding of experience situate narrative inquiry and call us to think narratively with stories. This allows for movement away from dominant narratives and toward openings to imagine otherwise in dynamic and interactive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on several studies we take up question about fictionalization in this article. In particular, we are interested in the intentions and purposes of fictionalization and discus these within the context of narrative inquiry. We draw attention to how fictionalizing has become a common and often unquestioned part of responding to concerns about anonymity raised by research ethics boards. We see three purposes for fictionalization: (a) protection of the identities of participants, (b) creation of distance between ourselves and our experiences, and (c) a way to engage in imagination that enriches inquiry spaces and research understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on telling of stories of life experiences. According to the authors the use of narrative inquiry in classrooms can help to shape extraordinary pedagogy in education. It mentions that all in a family are expected to hear such stories irrespective of their age. It discusses the study of narrative and narratives in social sciences.

Purpose - The purpose of this chapter is to explore and make visible narrative thinking as an interpretive act in moving from field texts to research texts. Approach - The chapter shows a collaborative meaning-making process of three teacher educators/researchers as they inquire into their identities as teacher educators. The chapter is framed around a focus on temporality, one commonplace within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space and also shows connections with the two other commonplaces of sociality and place. Findings - The researchers deepen the understanding of identity as situated in a continuity of experience in relation with others. They highlight how stories beget a storied response. They demonstrate that the experiential dimensions of sociality, temporality, and spatiality are interconnected. They find, through thinking narratively, that the relational is critical - both historically and in the present. Relationships shape a sense of self. This relational aspect of their research introduces ethical considerations. It is in honoring the stories they carry and the stories that are given to or shared with them that the possibility exists for shaping a responsive and attentive life. Research implications - Numerous authors have written about the relational aspects of narrative inquiry as a research methodology. This chapter shows ways in which the relational aspects of narrative inquiry shaped both our inquiry into and our understandings of our identities as teacher educators. These foundational aspects of the relational both in terms of narrative inquiry as a research methodology and in identity inquiry open up many future research possibilities which extend far beyond narrative inquiry into teacher educator identity. Value - Researchers utilizing a narrative inquiry approach will find a helpful explanation and demonstration of the process of making meaning of field texts by situating them within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors explore the place of tension in understanding narrative inquiry as a relational research methodology. Drawing on a narrative inquiry into children's, teachers’, and families’ experiences in schools shaped by achievement testing practices that flow from accountability policies, the authors show how attending to tensions is central to the relational aspects of composing field texts as well as writing interim and final research texts. Through a fictionalized interim research text, the authors make visible the centrality of relational narrative ethics as we live in the midst of tensions. Finally, the authors offer a starting point for considering the dangers of counterstories as we work with participants and attend to tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]