VISUAL DE LA UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA NACIONAL

Edna, also a member of the senior group and in her late fifties, positions her story about her value to the organisations she had worked in; she positions her identity as a leader who learnt to ‘work well with others’ (turn 9) illustrated in context below: ‘I have worked with great people; I read fast, I come to conclusions fairly quickly’.

Edna began by talking about the significance of relationships in her life, relationships that influenced her decisions but she also provided examples of making decisions that were based on strategic objectives. She described her education as a significant influence on her

professional choices and key relationships as important to her development, growth and learning. Edna had been a successful senior executive in a number of high-profile

organisations. She was also a representative on several boards. At the time of the interview she was moving from an executive role and entering a new stage of working in a consulting firm that exclusively assisted high-profile clients. In particular, she would work as a mentor for women in executive roles. Her role would be to provide mentoring services to enable senior women in executive’s roles to meet their business objectives. Edna regularly

mentioned having had opportunities to take responsibility and confront challenges, so she had experience to share with others. Edna identified herself as a professional who had made a choice to be a leader.

Preamble: orientation

I:

1. How have you developed and grown in your professional life? E:

2. I think it was a matter of what I didn’t want to do; I did my first degree at Latrobe where I was doing Sociology.

3. I had not finished my PhD, I felt I would go to my grave with an unfinished PhD. 4. I think I learnt too slowly, that I didn’t want to be an academic.

5. I was not cut out for it. I

6: Is there any critical moment you recall that has influence you? E:

Abstract

E:

7. My mother’s influence about having the educational skills.

Orientation

E:

105

Complicating action

E:

9: I have worked with great people; I read fast, I come to conclusions fairly quickly.

Evaluation

E:

10. I can absorb an enormous amount of material.

Resolution

E:

11. The ability to work with politicians, I have never wanted to be one.

Coda

E:

12.it’s a world where you learn influence, they have ministers, and you work in the background.

Edna reflects back to her youth when responding to the interviewers question. She responds to the interviewer by talking about her degree at university (see turns 2–5). She then moves on to talk about what is critical and responds to this question by telling a story about her mother’s influence and encouragement to have an education (see turn 7). It is not clear that there is a relationship between her mother’s influence and …‘the importance of having a good team’ (see turn 8), perhaps both are seen as critical to her. Edna discussed her first professional career opportunity and how she came to the realisation that she had some qualities that were highly regarded (she orientates the reader to the ‘importance of having a good team’ (turn 7). Edna resolves the plot of the story concerning what is critical by

highlighting that ‘she has the ability to work with politicians, but has never wanted to be one’ (see turn 11).

Edna positions her story as a woman with the educational background and as a leader who aspires to support others. Edna uses the word ‘I’ on a number of occasions this highlights that she has ownership and does not necessarily see others influence her choices. Edna starts six of her sentences with ‘I’ and Betty has more to say about the context and others that

influenced her in the experience of development and growth. Betty however starts five sentences with ‘I’.

The two cases discussed above demonstrate some similarities in that when asked a question from the interviewer about how they have developed and grown in their professional life both senior women positioning their story in their early career. They position their story by

106 A theme emerges from Betty’s story about political values and Edna’s story about leadership values. They identified with particular values.

An important way of telling storytellers identity production is by exploring how a participant interacts with an interviewer and what they chose to tell and where they position what they share (Johnston 2008). The storyteller makes selections (choices) about what to tell and what to leave aside and how to tell the story.

Bamberg (1977, 2003) questions how a storyteller positions herself as a particular identity to her immediate audience, the interviewer. Boden and Zimmerman (1991) explore the sequence of turn-taking during an interview. Note in Betty’s story she works (in turn 2) to clarify what it is the interviewer wants to hear about and then responds with a rhetorical question that lets the interviewer know she has a view that the way she has developed and grown has not been a straight forward trajectory or based on a career plan … the experience emerged. For example, turns 4 and 5 provide the context for her journey.

4. If you are asking, when I was 18 did I have a vision of what the journey would be? 5. The answer is no.

The narrative interview begins by the interviewer asking a broad question. Just the first few lines of the response are presented above and the question about what is critical comes later in the interview; however they are selected here as extracts to present and to observe the patterns of what the two women above see as important in their initial response and critical to their development and growth. Below the story from a woman starting out in her career is presented.