Narrative inquiry is the study of the ways humans experience the world (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Narrative is a way to capture those experiences through interaction of researcher and participant conveying that interaction into writing, and examining the thinking process and meanings behind those experiences. Lyons and LaBosky (2002) argue that narrative is a way for
people to story their experiences; it is a way to create meaning and to “preserve what it is they know and how they think, and rethink their craft, capturing those illuminations discovered in the midst of classroom life” (p. 12). Describing such phenomena thoroughly is not possible through simple facts or data. It can only be brought to the surface through stories (Carter, 1993). And because, in large part, teachers’ knowledge of teaching comes from their practice in the classrooms, stories provide a way to access that knowledge. Narrative studies “is a way of making teachers’ knowledge conscious and public, and open to scrutiny” (Lyons & LaBosky, 2002, p. 12).
According to Lyons and LaBosky (2002), there are five distinct features that describe narrative inquiry. These qualities include:
1. intentional reflective human actions, 2. socially and contextually situated,
3. engaging participants in interrogating aspects of teaching and learning by “storying” the experience,
4. implicating the identities of those involved, and 5. constructing meaning and knowledge (pp. 21-22).
First, narrative practice is an intentional and reflective activity of the mind. Clandinin, Murphy, Huber, and Orr (2010) argue that story is the natural method by which humans make sense of their experience. Second, narratives are socially and contextually situated; this means that narratives are situated with certain individuals and takes place in a specific setting or situation. Similarly, Clandinin and Rosiek (2006) argue that while the individuals’ personal story is the foundation of the narrative, the process of narrative inquiry also invites and portrays the complex situational context that comes with the stories. They state:
[Narrative inquiry is also] an exploration of the social, cultural and institutional narratives within which individual’s experiences are constituted, shaped, expressed and enacted – but in a way that begins and ends that inquiry in the storied lives of the people involved. Narrative inquirers study an individual’s experience in the world and, through the study, seek ways of enriching and transforming that experience for themselves and others. (p. 42)
Third, narrative prompts participants to question and challenge their knowledge in order to bring new meaning and understanding. Fourth, because narratives involve the process of reflecting and tapping into the sense of self, individuals experience self-discovery that can affect their identities both personally and professionally. The third and fourth features describe a space of knowledge community or a space where caring reasoning and transactional relations are taking place (Thayer-Bacon, 2003). The safe place of a knowledge community offers a space where individuals attend to each other and interact with each other to produce new meanings from the experiences they share. Through the transaction, individuals affect each other. The interaction offers a space for human revolution (Ikeda, 2010a). In other words, narrative is a transactional relation that can affect each other’s identities.
Lastly, narrative inquiry is the process of constructing meaning and knowledge. This last feature echoes Field and Macintyre Latta’s (2001) notion of practical wisdom or Makiguchi and Ikeda’s notion of creating value that are both evoked from experience and interaction with others. As a result of their cumulative assessment, Lyons and LaBosky (2002) argue that the five qualities demonstrate exemplary narratives.
When referring to experience, Clandinin and Connelly (2000), among others in narrative research, embrace John Dewey’s (1938) criteria for experience. Nothing is fixed—we continue to experience and be involved with our world through our relations with others. In particular, Clandinin and Connelly use Dewey’s criteria of interaction and continuity of experience as their conceptual framework for their three-dimensional narrative inquiry space. As researchers delve
into their narrative inquiry, they need to think within three commonplaces, a metaphorical space of temporality, sociality, and place (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; 2006; Clandinin, 2006; 2013). By being aware of the three-dimensional metaphorical narrative inquiry space, Clandinin and Connelly provide a way for researchers to fruitfully and respectfully engage and attend to their participants in the most meaningful way.
The first dimension describes the movement of going backward and forward within the narrator’s temporal space between past, present and future (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; 2006; Clandinin, 2006; 2013). In this place, inquirers attend to the people, events, place, and things that form that temporal space. This dimension describes the continuity of the temporal space; even in the present, people are continuing to live and experience. There is no fixed space. The second dimension portrays the personal and social aspect when the researchers and participants engage; this dimension describes the movement inward and outward. The personal reflects the inward space, where the inquirer experiences and examines the feelings, emotional responses, and moral dispositions that emerge through the relation and inquiry. This personal space also shapes the social space. The social space is oriented outward, where inquirer explores the situated cultural, social, institutional, familial, or linguistic context. In other words, the inquirer examines the outward place of what’s happening to the people and events taking place in the narrative. The third dimension is the place, the situated physical environment where the narratives take place and where the inquirer conducts the study. Connelly and Clandinin (2006) describe this place as the “specific concrete, physical, and topological boundaries of place or sequences of places where the inquiry and events takes place” (p. 480).
For my narrative research, I adopt Lyons and LaBosky’s (2002) five features that describe exemplary narrative work and Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000; 2006) three-
dimensional narrative inquiry space as my guide to design the research method. My research explores and examines the rich stories and lived experiences of former Soka students, the cultural ethos they value, and their current experiences as educators. By providing opportunities for teachers to share their stories, possibilities for new insight and understandings can emerge. Narrative inquiry helps capture not only the individuals’ rich stories but also the social, cultural, and institutional narratives that lie within the individual’s lived experiences (Clandinin & Rosiek, 2006). Likewise, I examine the social and cultural meanings of Soka education as defined and applied by the graduates.