NSE 222 Week 7: Narrative inquiry, Participatory action research (PAR)& Photovoice

Nature of Narrative Inquiry

• Researchers collect stories about their lived and told experiences

• Stories are heard and shaped by the researcher into a chronology

• Often have turning points

• stories occur within a specific place or situation

Narratives in health research

• Develop and contribute: to professional knowledge thus can, improve care

• Enable: professionals to understand their patients and clients more deeply by truly listening to their voices

• Allow: nursing and other healthcare professionals to gain knowledge that is grounded in ‘concrete situations’

• Obtained from: narrative accounts in healthcare can be obtained from patients or clients, caregivers and relatives or colleagues and other professionals

• Best for: capturing detailed stories of experiences of an individual or the lives of a small number of individuals

Reasons for storytelling (Holloway & Freshwater, 2007)

• give meaning to experiences, in particular suffering

• interpret and verbalise important events and share them with others

• present a holistic view of experience and perspective

• try to find adjustment when conditions are unalterable

• confirm group membership in a shared culture

• attribute blame or responsibility to themselves or others

• take more control over their own lives

Dimensions of Storytelling

• Chronological or sequential

• Non-chronological

Types of stories

• Everyday

• Cultural

• Autobiographical

• Collective

• Biographical

Forms of Narratives

• Restitution

• Chaos

• Quest

Restitution (Forms of Narratives)

To get back what was lost - The cure

Chaos (Forms of Narratives)

There is no beginning, middle, or end - no cure

Quest (Forms of Narratives)

There is a transformation by the illness or journey

Narrative interviewing

• Remembering is subjective

• initial question needs to trigger a lengthy tale

• Controlled by participant

• Little interruption by researcher

Turning points

Looking at things from a different point of view. Change that transforms the character, changing their behaviours

Narrative analysis

• Main steps: Transcribing and reducing data

• Restorying

• Visual analysis

• Participation validation

Narrative Analysis can be about (Crewel,2013)

• What is said (theoretically)

• The nature of telling the story (structured)

• who the story is directed to (dialogic/performance)

Types of analysis

• Thematic

• Structural

• Performance

• Visual

Thematic and holistic analysis (Narrative analysis, Riesman, 2008)

• whole narrative is analysed

• main statements should reflect the core of the experience

• embedded meanings are found by focusing on the content of the story

• great value to locate the essence or the core of the story

• focus in analysing the story as a whole,

• focus on what is in the story, rather than how it is told

Dialogical/Performance analysis (Narrative analysis)

• focuses more on the text and the context

• Considers the interactive talk, gestures, mime or other elements that are part of the interaction

  It also focuses on the people involved in the narrative and how the conversation is oriented

• focus on social interaction, relationships and identities that are co-constructed with others considered a ‘hybrid’ where it takes elements of other types of analyses and combines them

Insider view (Wang & Geale, 2015)

• deep understanding arises of participant’s experience and perspective arises from participant’s story

• reveals subjective truths for the participants within their social context

• researcher and participant negotiate relationship and transactions- researchers need to continually discuss participant’s story with the participant to help shape the restory

‘Truth’ in Narrative research

• overuse ans uncritical acceptance

• active collaboration with participant necessary

• Reflection by researcher for how they restory

Participatory action research (PAR) definition

• A disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking action.

• primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her actions

• often conducted with participants that are disenfranchised, who seek some emancipation

• approach to research in communities that emphasises participation and action.

• seeks to understand the world by changing it

• collaboratively and following reflection

• empahsizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history

Why is PAR unique?

• Participants are experts and researchers

• Research issues related to dependence, oppression, and other inequities in need of evaluation

• informs policy

• end result is action

Preliminary stage (Stages of Participatory action research)

All participants are involved in the proposal and part of the reasons for the project

Assessment phase (Stages of Participatory action research)

Ethical issues are clarified, and anonymity ensured. Aims and limitations put on the table.

Planning phase (Stages of Participatory action research)

Participants find innovative ways to solve the problem and carry out specific tasks

Implementation (Stages of Participatory action research)

All participants must be comfortable with the theory and practice

Evaluation (Stages of Participatory action research)

Observation, intervention, written reviews are used

Change Cycle in PAR

• Researcher carefully observes what is happening in the setting. All participants should agree on their participation in the project - decision taken as a group

• Identify the problem areas they need to improve (via interview, focus groups take place)

• Implementation of change and evaluation of that change-done through several meeting, interviews and observation

Research considerations (PAR)

• Trustworthiness: extent to which the findings are accurate

• PAR has two overarching goals: Knowledge production & real world action

• To increase personal and community knowledge about a topic of a study

• To show that results indicate improvements or movement towards defined purpose

Photovoice Defined

a method of participatory research wherein participants document their lived experience through photography, narrate their photographs, and guide data analysis through discussion with the researcher

• used with optic to explain one’s reality