Clandinin (2023) highlights that both researchers and participants enter the inquiry in the midst, meaning that their experiences are not isolated but co-occur in many contexts. Clandinin (2023) believes that any Narrative Inquiry study should start from an intensive autobiographical narrative inquiry endeavour in order to:

1. Engage in self-reflection and uncover how the researcher’s own experiences are “also shaped by past, present, and future unfolding social, cultural, institutional, linguistic, and familial narratives (p.26);

2. Frame their research puzzle;

3. Start justifying their inquiries on personal, practical, and social levels of justification.

That is why I would like to introduce my background first to demonstrate the context that shaped my assumptions about storytelling in Narrative Inquiry. I am a young white female of Ukrainian origin. Historically, my nation has been affected by inter-generational trauma due to wars, displacements, and political repressions that, unfortunately, continue to this day. Until 16 years old, I lived and studied in my home country, which shaped many of my fundamental beliefs. For example, the Ukrainian health system still favors a biomedical approach to healthcare, overlooking the importance of non-biological factors. I was also educated that health-related research needs to be quantifiable to be trustworthy, so it is not affected by biases and individual assumptions. Being raised with such beliefs, I could not imagine the use of storytelling in rigorous research studies, as I only saw it fit in English classes and some social sciences. But what changed my perspective on storytelling in research?

#248 #words